Resurrection Part VIII - Home Stretch (Final)
by Annejackdanny
Summary: Jack/Daniel, kidfic, AU, h/c, adventure See overall summary on Part I - Now SG-1 has been brought back together, they will do everything to get home now. But will they be able to? And if they do, what will their lives be like from here on?
1. Chapter 1

**Part VIII**

**Home Stretch **

**They ****were entwined, spirals of vibrating energy. Two life forces flowing back together to become one**

**I**

Jack had always loved watching the sun come up over the ocean. It rose from the waves like a blossoming flower, stretching its orange and red petals across the water and into the air, mingling with the clouds, playing with the last frazzles of darkness. Slowly it would rise higher and higher until the beach and the town were bathed in its light. From the highest point of Ba'th Town, the theater, Jack had often enjoyed nature's play with colors as it welcomed a new day.

On this particular morning he watched with very mixed feelings as he was on his way into town. He was grateful he had gotten to see this one more time before they went home. But it also reminded him of what he was about to leave behind. It hadn't been a prosperous life. He hadn't accomplished much around here, but he'd been free.

_You're taking Daniel home_, he thought and immediately felt better. Even if they had to start from scratch because Daniel thought he was a stranger. Jack was determined not to let that stop him. Not again. Never again.

He slipped through the open gate to Hadis' backyard and passed the vegetable patch on his way to the small shed. The door was ajar and when he entered, a familiar gray head with long loping ears turned towards him. Thor took one look at Jack and went back to his breakfast of hay and those little green apples he liked so much.

"I'm happy to see you, too," Jack said with a grin.

"What the hell are you doing back here?"

Jack spun around to where Hadis was standing in the shadows, leaning on a pitchfork. "And you. How's the wife and kids?"

Hadis snorted and leaned the pitchfork against the wall of Thor's box. He stepped forward and they shook hands, then clasped shoulders. "You shouldn't be here."

"I know. There's been some..."

"Bump in the road?"

"You could say that, yeah. I need Thor."

"Jack..."

"Just to haul some food up to the ruins and other stuff. I brought back a couple of friends and we..."

"You brought your friends here? The other stamped people?" Hadis quickly stepped past Jack and closed the door. "Armed Forces have come to me asking for you. I told them I turned you over to your Mentor and the two of you have left Ba'th Town and gone back to Madinah City. To start a life together. After all Björk was supposed to hook up with you so that seemed a valid reason for you to leave town."

_Crap_. "When? Are they still here?"

"Two days ago. I have not seen them since so they probably left. That they came to my house to approach me about this is very unusual. Normally if authorities want your service they send some underling to escort you to Madinah. There's no official warrant for you, but you have to be very careful around town in case they left someone here looking for you." He twirled his mustache and, after a moment of thought, added, "Actually, they made it sound kind of urgent. And they seemed... nervous."

Jack wondered who had ratted them out to _the_ authorities and couldn't make sense of it. Surely Jadah hadn't had a change of heart. And the monks? The old guy had no interest in supporting his government any longer. That left the two stamped monks. If they had gotten away to warn authorities about Teal'c's escape... if they had done that, everyone would be looking for Teal'c. And they wouldn't assume Jack in Ba'th Town. They would search the area around the monastery and the villages closest to it.

It made no sense.

"Why did you return? When Björk told me you remembered and were going to find your friends, I always assumed you would try to escape through the portal."

Jack rubbed Thor's nose when the mule decided to greet him after all. "Believe it or not, we found out the shortest way to the portal is through a transportation device here in Ba'th. We just have to find it."

"What do you need?" Hadis asked after a pause "You said food. What else?"

"Kerosine. A couple of lamps. Maybe ropes. Couple of pickaxes."

"You want to go down into the catacombs. To find this transportation device?"

"Yeah. Can you send Mikele up there? I think he knows that place a lot better than he lets on."

A frown creased Hadis' forehead. "Can you promise me not to put my apprentice into danger?"

Jack smirked. "I knew you were going to like that kid."

Hadis waved it off. "He works well enough. Look, I'll get everything for you and then send him up there with Thor. You should stay by the ruins and hide."

"I'll keep my head down," Jack agreed. He needed SG-1 to take watch and... "I need another favor. Can I have your rifle?"

His friend didn't look happy. "I need it for hunting."

Jack pulled the money pouch from his pocket."I'll pay for it. And everything else you're getting for me."

Hadis took the pouch and weighed it in his hand. "You are a richer man than you let on." He opened it and peered inside. "This will do."

He retreated into the back of the shed and returned with his rifle and a small box of ammo. Handing both over to Jack he said, "Go. I don't want Masala to know you're here. She has just started seeing a young man. A fine young man."

Jack stuffed the ammo into his pants and shouldered the rifle. "Good for her. Never got what she saw in me anyway."

Hadis smiled knowingly. "She is my eldest daughter, Jack. I taught her all about the Shadows and Mentors when you arrived. She knows what you are because she was supposed to take over this duty from me at some point. I guess she has fallen in love with the fact that you are different. That you are shrouded in secrets and come from another world."

"Ahhh, ye-ah." Jack clasped Thor's neck. "I better head back then. Thanks for... you know..."

"Don't let any harm come to my apprentice," Hadis growled. "He's too smart for his own good and his little siblings are always underfoot, but he works for two and never complains. He's also very good with the clay."

"Told ya so. I won't let him get into any trouble, don't worry." Jack saluted sloppily and stole away, hopefully unseen.

He made his way back to the ruins, keeping an eye out for anyone who might be tailing him, but the road was deserted. The orange sun rays had just reached the foothills and the clay pit and started fading to normal daylight when he arrived at the ruins and saw Carter running towards him.

"Sir, Danny is missing!"

And he hadn't even have his coffee yet. "Define; missing."

"Well, he was with Teal'c when you left. They were going to exercise, but then Daniel joined them and Danny said he needed to go... and he's gone. Daniel and Teal'c are searching the theater and I went down that boulevard, but there's no sign of him."

"He's a small child, he can cram himself into really small spaces," Jack said, remembering how he had crawled into the kiln.

"Do you want me to try the boulevard again, sir?"

Jack was about to tell her he'd join her but, following a hunch, shook his head instead. "I have a pretty good idea where he might be. Are Teal'c and Daniel checking the catacombs?"

He had assumed Danny had gone there once before and had been wrong. But this time he figured the kid was trying to hide on purpose. And it dawned on him from what Danny was hiding. Or rather from whom.

"I'm sure they are." She kicked a stone out of the way. "Damn, I wish we had radios."

"Yeah, me too."

"I searched the bath houses and the other small buildings, too. He's not there."

They jogged across the grassy knoll over to the theater and when they entered the arena Daniel was just appearing in the entrance to the catacombs, carrying a candle. "We need better light in there!" he called down to them.

"DannyJackson is not up here," Teal'c's dark voice boomed from the highest tier.

Jack quickly took the stone steps, Carter on his heels, and joined Daniel by the entrance. "Give me the candle. I'll see if I can lure him out."

"There are steps going up and down and one section of the tunnel is caved-in. You won't see much when you get in deeper. I hope he didn't go underground." Daniel handed the pillar candle over.

"Yeah, I know, I've been down there before. I organized lamps and tools for our little excursion later, but I hope we'll find him before that," Jack said.

"How do you know he's in there? He might just be running around playing somewhere. This is a huge complex," Carter asked.

"He's probably scared," Daniel replied quietly. "You and Teal'c told me how I... died... and ascended. You've given me a run-down of what happened here, on Ba'th, and who the kid is. How he is connected to me. Danny knows all this, too."

Carter's eyes widened. "He's hiding from you? But... why?"

"Because," Daniel verbalized what Jack was thinking, "he might be the one who can give me back my memories."

"He's a part of you," Jack said flatly.

"And he has everything in his mind. Everything that makes me... me."

They locked eyes and Jack bit his lip. "You need him..."

"...back. Yeah."

It made horrible sense.

Carter shook her head. "Okay, hold on a minute here... are you saying Danny can give you back your memories by... what? Giving his mind to you? Melding back into you? He's a human being, flesh and blood. How..." She trailed off, looking back and forth between them. "Oh my god. I mean, I know we talked about this, Colonel, but..." She turned to stare at Daniel. "You really think Oma will literally merge the two of you back together? I don't even know how that's possible..."

"Carter, you _saw_ Daniel falling from the sky. You saw him materializing out of thin air. The same happened with the kid. And they are..." Jack threw up his hands. "It doesn't matter how that's possible. It happened. I'm sure it's not magic, but it's beyond even your comprehension so don't even try," he snapped, irritated, because all she cared about was trying to analyze the physical process to make it fit in her scientific mind.

While he felt the impact of it coming down on him like a ton of bricks.

He cupped the flame of the candle with one hand to shield it, turned around and entered the cool darkness of the tunnel. He'd been in here countless times during the summer, with tourists following him down the stairs to the two main chambers where - according to the legends - sinners had waited for their trials or to join the games. But he had never taken any tourists into the small underground alleys and rooms. He hoped Danny hadn't retreated into that labyrinth.

The light from the entrance didn't reach very far and soon Jack was in the dark, surrounded by the smell of old, dusty quarries. The flame of his candle flickered over limestone walls. Large niches to the left stayed in the shadows. During the summer he used oil lamps, but he'd run out of kerosine towards the end of the season and never restocked.

"Danny?" he called out softly. "C'mon, kiddo, it's me."

He strained his ears and heard the tiniest of sounds. Shuffling of feet? A rat?

"Mikele is coming up here soon with breakfast. And he'll bring Thor." There was some scrabbling to his left,

"Danny?" Jack turned slowly, holding the candle out in front of him. The light caught a movement. He took a couple of steps in that direction. "You can't stay in here forever, you know? It's bad for the tan and your only company will be rats."

"There are no rats here," a tiny voice came from within the depth of the niche.

"Okay, spiders then. Besides, what would you eat?" Jack stopped where he was, waiting.

"I wasn't gonna stay here forever," Danny replied with a sigh.

"Well, that's a relief. It's not very cozy."

"I didn't go downstairs to explore. I just didn't want to be with Daniel. And I needed to think real hard."

"It's okay. C'mere." Jack held out his free hand and, after a moment, Danny's fingers closed around his as he stepped into the flickering circle of light. They walked back the corridor to the exit. When the tunnel walls slowly took shape and color again, brown squared stones, particles of dust dancing in the gently dipping sunlight, Danny pulled at his hand and they stopped.

"Jack?"

"Danny?"

"I kinda lied to you. About what Oma said to me."

"I kinda knew that." Jack tugged the boy to his side and they sat down on the hard ground, with their backs against the cool stones. "Why don't you tell me now?"

"I have to go back to be with him. So he'll remember who he is."

Jack stared at the bowed head beside him. He tried to find words of comfort, but his throat was dry and tight. Finally, when he was sure his voice would carry nothing but confidence, he said, "Maybe he'll remember on his own, some day."

"Oma says I'm not really a me-me. I'm just a little part of him."

"Oh, you're a real you-you, believe me. And if Oma thinks otherwise she has to get past me first."

Jack hadn't planned on having another kid after Charlie. Except for that one time on Edora – where he had thought he'd be stranded for life and the concept of building something new, another family, had been a way for him to heal and accept his fate. But it had been out of his head as soon as he'd been home again and it turned out that Laira hadn't been pregnant. He'd been relieved back then. Being back on SG-1 and going through the gate just didn't leave any room for a family. He had lived the life of a soldier who'd been away from home far too often when Charlie was little. There was no way he'd do that again.

But Danny had fallen from the sky, right into Jack's lap. He had laughed and chattered and snuggled his way into Jack's heart from day one. _Where I go, you go._ That's what he had promised his star child. He would have made it work somehow. Retire if he had to. Even when Daniel had kind of hinted at the possibility of descending, Jack had expected to take Danny home with him.

Had _hoped_ he would take him home. He hadn't really planned beyond actually getting home. But it had been in the back of his mind. He hadn't been all too eager to go back to his old life anyway.

And now... Daniel was back and...

"You have to promise me not to hurt him again," Danny's voice pulled him out of his stupor. "I don't mean arguing. We do that all the time. But you always have to make up." The kid was looking at him expectantly now.

He tenderly stroked the soft, blond hair. "Always." He cleared his throat. "Hey, I'm good at making up."

"No, you're not."

Jack snorted. "Okay, so, maybe, no, I'm not. But we always... almost always...made up before, right? Sort of."

"Remember weed-planet?"

"Ye-ah..." Jack wasn't sure how he felt about Danny remembering THAT, but the boy's next words quickly made it clear he wasn't talking about the sex.

"You had a joining. You promised each other you would never break that bond. You have to make up and not hurt anymore, please?" Danny reached up and placed his palm on Jack's heart...

…_With this I'll be yours, our souls will be bonded forever and our hearts will be one. _The light in Daniel's eyes, the pureness of his feelings for Jack, the blue paint and the flowers. And Jack's willingness to follow Daniel anywhere, anytime, to be there for him and with him, always...

...He covered Danny's hand with his own. "We'll make it work whether he has his memories or not. You don't have to do this, kiddo."

"But he's not whole without me. Oma says he's not s'pposed to be without me forever. I have to go back."

"Danny..."

"I didn't want to. Oma says it won't hurt, but I didn't want to stop being me. Teal'c would say I'm a hassac." He hung his head again and tried to pull his hand away, but Jack held on to it.

"Danny Jackson, you're not a hassac. You're the bravest little guy I've met." He reached down with his other hand and gently tapped Danny's chin. When their eyes met, Jack nodded. "That's better. Now, to quote a good friend of mine; there has to be another way."

Danny shook his head.

A shadow darkened the sunlight falling through the exit. "They told me this Oma character is an entity of great power. I guess she has to be if she's able to give people new bodies and 'split' them."

"Yeah, but she's very picky about when and how to use those cool powers," Jack muttered.

Daniel crouched in front of them and Jack felt the small part of Doctor Jackson freeze beside him, then relax again.

"What exactly did Oma say, Danny?" the grown-up version asked kindly.

Jack, still holding the boy's hand, gave it an encouraging squeeze.

"She said I have to re-join you 'cause you need what's in my mind. She said to give you back what's yours and not to be afraid." Danny squirmed and sniffed. "I asked her if I couldn't just show you like I showed it all to Jack, but she said that's not good enough."

"Why not?"

The star child shrugged one shoulder. "'cause."

Daniel nodded. "I see. Not much to work with here, huh? What's going to happen if we won't do this? Did she say?"

"You'll grow all sad and sadder and then you'll just fade." Suddenly the star child let out a small chuckle. "She said something funny, too."

"What's that?" Daniel asked.

"She said you're like Tin Man. I didn't know she read the Wizard of Oz. Isn't that funny?"

"Who's...Tin Man?" Daniel asked, confused, and Jack felt a sharp sting of realization that this man who looked like Daniel and talked like Daniel didn't have any memories of actually being Daniel. Or of all those years they'd spent together chasing the bad guys and sharing Oz references.

"He's from a story Jack loves. Tin Man wanted to go to the great wizard of Oz 'cause he had no heart and he wanted one so badly so he could feel and stuff," Danny explained.

ooo

Daniel blinked. "That's..."

The man they called Jack gave him a long look and asked in a very soft voice. "That's how you feel right now?"

"I..." How could he put in words how he felt? How could this guy, this stranger, even begin to understand how Daniel felt? He didn't even understand it himself. Yet... "Yeah. A little like that."

As if there was nothing of significance, nothing to hold on to; simply because Daniel didn't remember anything that could possibly _be_ important to him. There was nothing but a bleak void. No familiarity, no structures.

Jack nodded. "Nothing of what T and Carter told you make any sense?"

Daniel shrugged helplessly. "This whole ascending to a higher plane of existence thing... and coming back from it. It should probably freak me out, but it doesn't. It feels... real. But all the terms, names and places they have given me..." Daniel shook his head and held out his hands, palms up. "I'm like an empty vessel."

"Like Tin Man," Jack concluded and Daniel could see something in the older man's brown eyes. Sadness? Worry?

"You know... not so long ago none of us knew who we really were. We all lost our memories, too. But someone gave us new ones instead. Filled that empty space up with pretty pictures and stuff we thought we'd done or seen, place we've been. None of that ever really happened," Jack continued.

"Yes. Teal'c and Sam told me."

"Look, I don't know how Oma managed to make two of you or how you got her to do it. But I'm sure of one thing; this was your choice. You wanted to help us. To get us back together and trigger our memories. You came down from the stars in this reincarnation," Jack gave the small boy beside him a gentle squeeze, "to be with us and to see us through it. And whatever happens, we're right here with you. Even if it means nothing to you, you have to believe that."

Last night, Teal'c had talked about hope and strength and assured him he was among friends. Family. Daniel had felt the sincerity and the truth of that, but he hadn't been able to grasp the essence of it.

Now, as his eyes locked with Jack O'Neill's, he could actually sense a shared bond of something strong and powerful, something that belonged only to them... It was damaged, but not broken... And there was a world of pain in the colonel's gaze, paired with barely concealed desperation, but also a flicker of hopefulness.

_...Why don't you stick around for a while? Christmas? Groundhog day?..._

Daniel grasped for those words surfacing from a deep, empty well that was his memories, and tried to get a hold of them, put a picture with them. _Jack's voice. _

"You..." He licked his lips. "You asked me to come back once before."

"I did."

"I almost..." A sharp jolt surged through his head. Daniel's hands jerked upwards and pressed against his temples. He sank to his knees, trying to keep in a whimper as his head seemed to swell and explode. The world slowed down and was bathed in a haze of red, hot pain as he toppled forward...

"Daniel!" He was grabbed by his shoulders and held upright. "Daniel, talk to me! What's wrong?!"

"He has to stop!" Danny yelled. "He has to stop fighting it! They don't want him to 'member anything! He has to stop trying!"

Their voices were far away and distorted, barely reaching him through the fire spreading all over his brain, consuming him. He was going to die, he was going to melt like that witch in the story...the story...the story he couldn't remember. The fire flared up even higher, he could feel the heat and the destruction in every nerve of his body. Still he tried to hold on to that one single fragment of memory, not willing to let it go...

_..."Why don't you stick around for a while?"_

"_I can't, really."_

"_You just did."_

"_Special occasion."_

"_Christmas?"_

"_No."_

"_Groundhog Day?"..._

...There was a deeper meaning to those words. They were like a code for... for...

"Daniel!"

"Jack, do something! Make him stop thinking!"

"How!"

"I dunno! Smack him! Tickle him!"

He was pulled forward. Hands on his face, covering his own against his skull. A touch against his lips, barely noticeable at first, but growing more firm, asking permission to enter. When Daniel gave in to it, when he let it happen, all thinking stopped. The memory slipped away, but the fire retreated as well, pulled back like water on a tide, replaced by a sensation that drowned out everything else.

As they parted, Jack moved their hands away from Daniel's head, to his lap, but didn't let go. Their foreheads touched and Daniel could hear their joined breathing and feel his heart racing in his chest.

"Don't do that again," Jack rasped out.

"They put a lock on it," Daniel ground out. "When I am getting too close to..."

"Shhh. Don't." A kiss was pressed to his brow and he felt Jack's lips moving against his skin. "No more hard thinking."

"How do I stop thinking? How do I stop trying to remember?" Daniel murmured.

"_I'll_ just keep kissing you every time you start."

"All the time? Even in front of General Hammond?" Danny piped up curiously, causing them to straighten up quickly.

Jack cleared his throat. "Well, maybe not... in front of the general."

An awkward silence followed as they sat on the hard ground, staring at one another, still holding hands. Daniel could feel the warmth of the sunlight caressing his back while his face was in the cool shadows of the tunnel they were in.

He took a deep breath. "So, what now?"

"Oma said the Others don't know about me, She said I can slip past the barrier they set up and give it all back to you and they won't know." Danny reluctantly left his safe spot by Jack's side and came to stand to Daniel's left. "I will help you."

"No. I won't let you do this," Daniel said firmly. "I can make new memories." He laced his fingers with Jack's, feeling the connection, the belonging. "We can make new ones. I won't be sad and I won't fade."

"But you have to remember. You have to go back _to_ being on SG-1. Jack, tell him. Tell him you need him to be on the team," Danny blurted out.

Jack opened his mouth, then closed it.

"I'll re-learn anything I need to know," Daniel said.

"And every time you get close to remembering something you'll start seizing and scaring the crap out of me. What if that happens in the field or what if I can't pull you out of it the next time?" Jack asked quietly. "How many of these... attacks can you take?"

"I don't know. But..."

"He's right, Daniel. We need you. _I_ need you. On the team, in my life. Everywhere."

"Even if it means losing Danny?"

Jack's throat was working hard and his eyes darkened as he seemed to age within seconds under the weight of a decision Daniel knew was nearly impossible to make. "I..."

"I get to decide. Not Jack. Or you," Danny said sharply. He bit his bottom lip and a frown crinkled his brow. "I'm not scared anymore." He looked at Jack. "You're not losing me. I'm just inside him, that's all."

Jack didn't reply, he merely nodded and let go of Daniel's hands.

Daniel watched them hug hard. Finally Jack kissed the top of Danny's head and released him. "What now?"

"You don*t have to stay, Jack," Danny said, his voice gentle and tender, as if he was the parent trying to reassure his child.

"I know," Jack replied lightly and rose to his feet. But instead of leaving he just crossed his arms and leaned back against the tunnel wall again.

Danny turned to Daniel and held out his arms. "Hug me."

Realizing he didn't have a say in this, Daniel embraced the child; a warm solid body, a fast beating heart. A life he was about to end to become whole again.

_No_, he thought, _I can't_. But just as he started pushing Danny away, he was literally knocked out of his own body along with the kid. Sucked through his own skull – or so it felt – and suddenly they were hovering in mid-air and Daniel could see their bodies lying on the ground and Jack kneeling between them, but staring at the ceiling wide eyed.

'Don't let go of me,' Danny said in Daniel's head. They were entwined, spirals of vibrating energy. Two life forces flowing back together to become one. 'It's starting now.'

'I'm sorry,' Daniel replied sadly.

'I had a lot of fun.'

Everything came flowing back to him - to where it belonged - like a gentle wave, without overpowering him. Daniel expected the firewall to flare up again, but that never happened. His empty well was filled with everything that was Daniel Jackson, with everything he'd ever felt and thought and done. The good, the bad, the sad and the angry times. The heartaches, the victories, the losses, the gains. Light and shadow.

He and Danny moved in a circle like a slow-motion spinning top, merging back together... And with the return of the knowledge about being ascended he began to look for a loophole, a way to fix this, something...

'You'll get my own memories, too.' Danny's mental voice was fainter now, but excited and cheerful. 'From when we were sep'rated. We can keep them and write them in our journal!'

'Do you trust me, Danny?'

There was bubbling laughter, carefree and wonderful. 'That's a stupid question. Do you trust yourself?'

Daniel summoned his own ancient powers one last time; his will, his strength and the faith in his knowledge that he was doing the right thing. After all, Tin Man already had had a heart when they reached Oz. He just hadn't known. But Daniel knew he had a heart, and he knew whom it belonged to. He'd gotten back everything he needed now.

_Hail, Dorothy!_

With a blast of his own energy he pushed as hard as he could.

**II**

Daniel came around with a choking breath and a cough. His eyes snapped open, huge and bulging. For a second Jack thought they were going to pop out just like that. Then the moment was over and Daniel gazed at him, his pupils dilated as if he was drugged.

"Jack!"

"Hey, there." Jack gripped a shoulder to steady his friend when he sat up abruptly.

"Oh. God." Daniel buried his head in his hands.

"Headache?"

"No, just... dizzy. I'm fine." He took a deep breath and slowly raised his head again. "Danny?"

Jack had already moved to the small still form, automatically feeling for a pulse. "Shouldn't his body just... disappear? Yours did when you left." His fingertips kept searching, pressing into the soft skin at the kid's neck. Daniel took one of Danny's hands and felt his wrist. Their eyes met and he shook his head.

Jack cupped the boy's face. It was still warm. He pulled up one eyelid, but there was no reaction, no narrowing of the pupil. Maybe it was just too dark in here... but Jack knew better. He gathered the star child into his arms and stood.

"Jack."

"Just... give me a moment." He walked away and stepped out into the light of day. When his eyes had adjusted to the brightness he took the steps to the highest tier and walked the rotund_a_ until he reached a spot where he had a view over the town and the ocean.

There he sat down, cradling the boy to his chest, and allowed himself to grieve.

He hadn't given himself that moment after Charlie died because he had believed he didn't have the right to mourn openly for his son. Didn't have the right to let even part of his agony out. He had bottled it up, nurtured it with his self loath_ing_ and guilt. He had believed he deserved to suffer, to never forgive himself. Maybe deep down he still believed that even though the edges around Charlie's death had softened a bit and he had let go of some of the pain.

Jack rocked the star child gently, wishing it was night. There should be stars all over the sky so that he could imagine Danny was one of them. He fingered the soft strands of blond hair at Danny's temple, brushed his hand over the round head. The old lullaby popped into his mind and he wondered if Danny would have liked being sung to.

_Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are..._

It wouldn't have been pretty. Jack didn't have a particularly dulcet singing voice. But maybe it would have made Danny laugh. He had loved to laugh so much.

_Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky..._

Jack felt the tears at the back of his throat, but they didn't fall. Crying had never come easily to him, something else that had been drummed into him from an early age. Boys didn't cry. Men sucked it up and moved on. He had never passed on those 'pearls of wisdom' to his own kid, but he couldn't change how he'd been brought up and how it affected him.

It was easier to be angry at Oma for making him bury another child. The least she could have done was to make the body go.

A shadow fell over Danny's face and he didn't have to look up to know who settled down beside him.

"I'm sorry," Daniel offered softly.

"He loved life," Jack said. "Everything about it. He was just busting with it."

"I know. I can feel that. It's... in me now."

Jack looked at Daniel and recognized the difference. He couldn't pinpoint it, but it was there. Maybe it was the smile. It couldn't conceal the sadness in his eyes, but it was a typical Daniel-smile. A little hesitant, a bit shy. The aura of being totally lost that had surrounded him before was gone.

"It worked. You... you're you again."

The smile died. "Yes. Jack, listen, this is my fault and I'm..."

"It's not your fault. It was his choice and he was right."

"No, you don't understand. I... I interrupted the process. If I hadn't, maybe his body would be gone, too."

"What are you saying?"

"I... I tried to save him. I think I made it much worse instead. Especially for you." Daniel blinked against the sunlight as he stared across the valley and the ocean.

Jack gazed down at the boy. His boy. Danny's eyes were closed and he appeared to be sleeping, snuggled against Jack's chest. Peaceful. "Maybe," he said after a moment. "But this body was part of him, too. Maybe he'd like it to stay here."

"Yeah." Then, out of the blue, Daniel said, "He loved you so much, Jack. I think you should know that." After another heartbeat, he added, very quietly, "And so do I."

Even in his state of anguish those words reached him and he finally wanted to say them back. He had kept them inside for so long, had fought them for so long. But before he could open his mouth, he felt a tingling sensation all over his body, like goosebumps. As if grains of sand rippled through him. There was a stirring in his arms and...

"Jack? I saw an angel," Danny said, sleepily knuckling his eyes.

Jack was too stunned to say or do anything but hold onto the kid. It was Daniel who recovered first. He bent over Danny and asked, "Did the angel talk to you?"

"She said to tell you something." Danny frowned hard as he tried to remember. "She said what you did was kinda naughty, but she'll forgive you 'cause you meant well. You're not s'pposed to make new candles when you dunno how to mold the wax, but she fixed it."

Daniel shook his head. "I had to try."

"What... what exactly did you do?" Jack asked.

"I thought if I sent Danny's spirit back into his body just before he gave me his 'own' memories, the ones he made on Ba'th, the ones that aren't connected to me... I thought it would save him." A grin blossomed on his face, this time reaching his eyes, too. "I guess I was a bit off the scale, but she..."

"Fixed it," Jack finished for him. He felt pleasantly light-headed all of a sudden. _Thank you, Oma_, he thought. Maybe she wasn't such a bitch after all. Or maybe fixing Danny just fit in her agenda somehow. Maybe she had nothing better to do. Whatever...

"Is the angel gone now?" Daniel asked.

Danny nodded. "She was very pretty and shiny. She said her name's Oma and you're friends. She wishes you well on your journey. I don't know what that means, but it sounds nice."

"Yeah, it sure does."

Jack helped Danny to sit on his knee. "What do you remember? From before you saw the angel?"

He tilted his head and gave it some thought. "I was ex-er-ci-sing with Teal'c so he can get better, 'cause he's sick from something. Then I went into the tunnel to explore." He bit his lip and worried his thumb with his forefinger. "I'm not supposed to go in the tunnel. Am I in trouble?"

Jack waggled his eyebrows and Daniel bit back a smile. "I'll let it go this time. What happened in the tunnel? Do you know?"

"I met the angel there. I know I fell from the sky and I've been with you for a while. I thought I had to go back to the stars, but the angel said I have my own journey, now. Though she wouldn't tell where I'm going."

"You're with me," Jack said.

"With us," Daniel corrected.

"Yeah. With us. Wherever we go, you go. What do you think?"

Danny nodded enthusiastically and held up his hand. Jack high-fived him, then Daniel did.

Now that the deal was sealed, Jack grabbed the star child around the middle as he surged to his feet. He swung him up into the air and started spinning them both around until Danny's laughter was heard far and wide across the ruins.

As they left the theater, swinging a still giggling Danny back and forth between them, Jack asked Daniel, "So you remember everything now? No blank spaces?"

"Actually, now that you ask... I don't remember much from my time with Oma." He frowned, then sighed. "I guess she made sure I won't try making new candles and screwing up again."

Jack grinned. "It's probably for your own good."

"Ye-ah."

They found Carter and Teal'c by the shelter. Teal'c was just starting a fire and Carter was helping a very familiar red-headed boy unloading Thor.

"Mikele!" Danny squealed and took off with lightning speed to greet his friend and almost toppled them both over as he clung to the older boy. "Did you bring Mania and Ranja?"

"No, but they will come later. Jorge will come too and Paolo and some of the other kids," Mikele laughed, hugging the kid back.

"Can we play ball?" Danny tugged at Mikele's arm.

"Not now. I have work to do. Maybe when the others are here, okay?"

Jack took pity on Mikele and plucked Danny off him. "Why don't you help Carter with the food, buddy?"

"Ohhh, food! Does that mean we can have breakfast soon? I'm staving!" The little whirlwind was off without a backward glance.

"Breakfast is just the thing," Jack decided. "Coffee. You brought coffee, right?"

Mikele grinned at him and nodded. "A whole bag. Water and a pot, too."

"Good man. We need lots of coffee. See my friend here? That's Daniel – and he doesn't even acknowledge a new day has dawned until he_'s_ had his first coffee."

Mikele gave Daniel a curious look. "Your friends are very nice people, Jack. Though the one who looks like a sinner is a bit scary."

"He's not a sinner," Daniel assured the boy. "You don't have to be afraid."

"I'm not. Friends of Jack's are my friends," Mikele said smartly, then grinned. "I better go and help with the picks and the lamps. I brought shovels, too. Thor was not happy about the load he had to carry."

"Wait." Jack put a hand on his shoulder. "You said the other kids will stop by later. Didn't Hadis tell you not to let anyone know we're back?"

The freckled preteen shrugged. "Yeah. But I figured, with all the stuff he made me get for you, that you're looking for something down in the catacombs. I thought you could use help from anyone who can be trusted so I told them to come."

Jack raised his left eyebrow. "Oh? Assumptions?"

"Am I right or what?" Mikele gave him a cheeky grin.

Jack nodded reluctantly. "And since when do you trust Jorge?"

"You trust him. And," Mikele blushed, "I've spent a lot of time working with him. He's still a mule's ass, but he's not so bad, really." He brightened suddenly and added, "We have so much clay, Jack, we can make a huge stock over winter. And Hadis is taking a lot of it for his shop next season."

Jack watched him go and couldn't help feeling a little smug. He loved it when a plan worked out.

ooo

After a breakfast that was more than opulent for someone who had spent the last two weeks living on berries, meat and herbal tea, they sat around the fire and sipped strong black coffee. Daniel savored his like he hadn't had any coffee in...

_Wait, he hadn't had any coffee in a very long time_. Jack glanced at his archeologist. It was amazing and a bit scary how fast they had all gotten used to Daniel sitting here with them. It seemed so natural. Normal. Perfectly right. Even though he hadn't been around for months.

_We just got him back last night, _Jack thought in wonder. And that wasn't true, either. They really _only_ got him back just two hours or so ago. It was mind boggling. But SG-1 had learned to take mind boggling as it came and deal with it.

So while Carter and Teal'c didn't exactly know what had happened in that tunnel and how Danny could still be with them while Daniel had gotten his life back, they didn't ask much. They knew they were going to hear the whole story eventually. In the meantime they had their small, quiet 'welcome home, Daniel' celebration with a picnic and coffee.

It was nice having this get-together. It was like having a team night.

More and more of the local kids had showed up by now. Danny and the twins were playing catch. Mikele, Paolo and some of the other game-kids kicked the ball around. Jorge's group had gathered around Carter and Teal'c. From what Jack could tell they were discussing the layout of the catacombs.

Everyone took from the food until it was gone and that was okay because Jack knew they'd have to travel light. No unnecessary luggage. They'd make it through on the other side or they wouldn't. If they got caught and arrested they'd probably end up back here without a clue and a new set of memories in their heads.

A couple of weeks ago he wouldn't have minded forgetting again. But things had changed and he wasn't going to give up his identity, his life, without a fight. Wouldn't allow them to make him forget Daniel or his team again. He wouldn't let them take the kid from him either. These were the people he called his family. Not just his unit, his comrades in the field. Not just some team he was leading. He hadn't known what to go back to besides being a soldier and saving the world. A world that hadn't meant anything to him while he still felt that Ba'th was more a home to him than Earth.

Now...

"A coffee for your thoughts," Daniel teased, re-filling Jack's almost empty mug.

"Just thinking."

"That's unusual."

Jack smirked. "It happens sometimes. I guess it'd be less painful if I had a brain, eh?"

"Poor Scarecrow. All that stuffing in your head," Daniel teased. Yep, he was back all right.

"I would not be just a nothin', my head all full of stuffin', my heart all full of pain," Jack recited, then went on, "Perhaps I'd deserve you, and be even worthy of you, if I only had a brain."

Daniel put his coffee mug down and stared at him. "Wow. That's... deep."

"When Cromwell left me in Iraq and they locked me away for four months, the one thing that kept me alive was my family waiting for me at home. My kid, my wife... they got me through. Of course I'm too stubborn to die anyway, but... you get my gist." Jack sipped his coffee, his gaze focused on the smoldering fire.

Beside him Daniel said nothing, but Jack knew his friend was waiting patiently, his whole attention tuned on him. He'd never been known for spouting words of big feelings or wisdom, but every once in a while things had to be said. And he'd been putting this off far too long.

"When Ba'al stuck me in that sarcophagus over and over again... I've never been so close to breaking before. You were gone. I didn't have that special someone waiting at home for me. The one making it worthwhile to hang in there no matter what. And then, when you showed up in that cell and it was really you... not a delusion..."

"You fought me. You always do. I wanted to take you with me, but you refused," Daniel said quietly.

"I'm not made for being glowy, you know that."

There was a long pause, then Daniel sighed. "Yes, I know that. You're standing in your own way too often. But, apparently, it didn't work out for me either."

"You came back for us. Again. They think that's a bad _thing_? That's their loss."

"Thank you, but that's exactly why I'm not meant to be glowy. I can't let go of my ties, my humanity. They are looking for human potential, for pureness. But they won't allow anyone to use that potential. They are right because they refuse to play gods. But I'd rather be down here doing whatever I can with limitations, then be up there not doing anything at all." He ducked his head and gazed into his coffee mug. "But that's not the point here. Or what this is about right now."

Jack was tempted to play the dumb act to stall, but decided against it. "I knew I wouldn't make it in the glowy club. Hell, if you aren't good enough, then who is? Besides, I screwed up everything between us. I didn't trust myself not to screw up eternity with you, too. Thought you'd be better off without me."

"You really believe that, do you? That you're not good enough for me?" Daniel's voice was a mix of surprise and mild irritation.

"I didn't think I could be what you wanted me to be. That I could... give that much. Me trying and failing didn't seem worth fucking up the team in the process." He winced at his own words, at how pathetic they sounded. But he pushed through relentlessly. "I never thought I could _love_ a guy. Sex, yeah. But not all the _touchy_ feely, emotional stuff. Not with a guy. It was freaking me out. And you were so damn sure about all this."

"The only thing I was sure of were my feelings for you. Even though you tried to go out of your way to be a jerk so you could stay in your closet. Even though you're a cynical SOB who hides the fact that he's got a pretty big heart so well that he sometimes forgets it himself."

"Yeah, see? What would you want with someone like that?" Jack asked as he poured the remainder of his coffee into the fire and placed the mug on the ground.

Daniel threw up his hands. "I have no idea. Maybe I have a soft spot for irritating, pretending-to-be-straight military men."

"I'm done pretending," Jack said.

"You're full of surprises today." There was still irritation, but also a touch of genuine admiration as far as Jack could read Daniel's voice.

"I'm done fighting you, too." He finally faced the man who, when it came down to it, had been Jack's significant other for years even before weed-planet actually happened. Daniel returned his gaze calmly, openly. Curious. "When you busted me out of Ba'al's little fortress, when I asked you to stay and you didn't," Jack said, each word laced with the anguished memories, "I realized how much you being with me in that cell mattered. And what having to let you go _again_ was doing to me. Not right away, but every day a little bit more."

Daniel's eyes softened as he leaned into Jack, whispering, "Thank you. I guess I needed you to tell me. Just once."

"I'm not done," Jack murmured as he slid his palm around Daniel's neck to keep him right there, close enough. Their lips met and Daniel pulled back just a fraction, a question in his eyes.

_Here? Are you sure?_

Jack nodded lightly and captured his mouth once again, more fiercely. Daniel melted into the kiss and for that moment in time the outside world was gone, forgotten. They were in their very own micro cosmos where it was only them. And that feeling of belonging.

_With this I'll be yours, our souls will be bonded forever and our hearts will be one._

Just that.

Clapping, cheering and the occasional whistle from their audience pulled them back into awareness, but they parted slowly, holding each other's gaze. Daniel smiled, his whole face alight with it. "So, you decided that if you have to come out, you'll do it all the way and with a bang?"

"I figured I better get this right from the start," Jack grinned – and stole another kiss


	2. Chapter 2

**III**

Daniel wiped sweat off his brow to keep it from trickling into his eyes. He wished he had a bandana. But all he had were Jack's t-shirt and khakis. He didn't even possess any underwear. Everything he'd owned was back on Earth and probably in storage or gone. And Jonas was using his office and everything in it, including his tools. It was going to be interesting once they got home. Was he supposed to just walk into his-former-and-now-Jonas' office and take it back? Would he have to get yet another new place to live? Officially moving in with Jack wasn't an option. At least not for good. They could probably get away with using it as a temporary solution for a while, until Daniel got his own place.

He actually wondered if Jack still had a house? And Sam? They might all be homeless and forced to stay in their base quarters for a while.

He decided it was pointless to plan this far ahead. First they had to get home and go through all the red tape at the SGC. He'd been sort of dead once or twice or three times before. He knew it was easier to be wiped out of the system than being put back in. Bank accounts, credit cards, driver licenses, IDs... yep, lots of hassle.

He picked up the small hammer and continued chiseling at the stone plate covering the wall controls. They had found the rings down here in a closed off compartment. There had been a door with no handles or locks. Daniel assumed it could be opened with a remote. They had stumbled over it because Jack had ordered them to check the walls for cavities. It had been Sam who recognized the outlines of a door at the end of this corridor.

Breaking through hadn't actually been difficult, and the rings were right here in the ground. However, the wall panel was hidden as well and it had taken them a while to find it. There was no visible mechanism to remove the cover stone, so Daniel had been put to work on it.

Now, probably an hour after they had gotten through the door, he had excavated most of the panel. The stone plate wasn't very large, but quite solid. And he had to be careful not to accidentally damage the controls.

It had been months since he'd worked with his hands and while the task was rather boring he enjoyed the feel of his body. That it was actually there. He liked the way his muscles ached just so from holding the hammer for so long and hitting the stone. He could feel the faint vibration in his hand every time the hammer collided with the solid surface. Even the sweat and the dust settling on his skin, making his eyes itch, was welcomed. All part of being physical.

He remembered Jack's mouth on his and a pleasant shudder ran down his spine. He was going to explore that aspect of being physical a lot more, later.

Well, hopefully sooner rather than later. For now he focused on his work.

Sam and Teal'c had gone to the surface. It was time for Teal'c's drug and – even though the Jaffa would probably rather die than admit it – for a much needed break. Most of the older teens and kids had left once the rings had been found. Daniel didn't know if Jack had paid them, but he wouldn't be surprised if they had helped voluntarily just to escape their other chores or because they had fun exploring the underground chambers of the ruins.

Or just because they liked Jack enough to help.

Jack had teamed them up, each group accompanied by one member of SG-1 or one of the guys from Jorge's gang and Daniel had been amazed how easily Jack had gotten all those kids – there had to be a dozen at least – to comply. He had told them what to look for, had laid down a couple of ground rules and sent them to work. Daniel had always known that Jack had a great connection with kids, but the way he and those children interacted made him realize that Jack had really built a foundation here. He'd spent a lot of time in this town and with those kids and it showed.

The sound of running feet in the corridor was a nice excuse for a break and he stopped hammering when his little counterpart skidded around the corner, Mania on his heels.

Danny carried a water pouch which he was now holding out to Daniel. "Jack says you must be thirsty."

"I am, thank you." He took it, opened It quickly and drank.

"What awe yoo doin'?" Mania asked.

Daniel swallowed another mouthful of water before he replied, "I'm removing a stone plate from this wall so we can use the transporter."

Danny took Mania's hand and pulled her over to the rings. "It's easy. You have to step in here and..." He frowned, then turned to Daniel. "How does it work again? I forgot."

"Well, basically you step in the middle of the circle and someone pushes the wall controls and it will whisk you away to another place."

Mania's eyes grew big. "Thith ith how yoo gonna go home?"

"Sure." Danny hopped inside the ring circle and back out again. "It's like magic. Except it's not, but I've forgotten what it is. Sam will know. She's big on techno babble stuffs."

"Magical wings," Mania squealed and it took Daniel a moment to get that she meant 'rings', not wings.

The kids were engaged in a game of jumping in and out of the circle when Jack entered the chamber.

"Sometimes I wonder if it's a Daniel thing," he grumbled as he placed his lamp on the ground next to Daniel's.

"What?"

"The moment I turn my back on that kid, he takes off," Jack said raising his voice.

Danny didn't pause in his jumping game, but answered, "I didn't! You were right behind us. We were just waaay faster than you, Jack."

"We SO need to talk about your interpretation of what I'm telling you," Jack sighed.

"Maybe your words are organized oddly for him. You have to be more precise," Daniel suggested, tongue-in-cheek.

"I did say; don't run ahead. That means don't run ahead. It doesn't mean run ahead a little bit or run ahead as fast as you can or whatever. Where's the confusion?"

"I'm not getting in the middle of this," Daniel said and went back to chiseling.

"Chicken," Jack muttered, then took a look at the wall. "So, you getting there?"

"Yep."

"I can take over..."

"No, I've got this."

"How much longer do you need?"

"Half an hour, tops."

"All right. We better start packing then." Jack rubbed his hands. "C'mon, kids, let's go."

Daniel watched as Danny took Mania's hand and the two of them skipped ahead, into the tunnel, followed by Jack and his lamp.

When he turned back to his work, he thought about the fact that not only would they all have to get their lives back on track, but they were also bringing Danny home with them. And whatever changes that would mean for Jack and his position on SG-1... Daniel knew it was also going to affect his own life and his relationship with Jack.

Jack was ready to be a dad again, there was no doubt about that. The question was; was Daniel prepared for not only getting his life back, and a lover, but a kid on top of that? A family?

When Jack had said, earlier, that Danny was going to be with him, Daniel had immediately corrected him, saying that Danny was going to be with _them_. He had literally made a commitment right there and then.

There was no turning away from that now.

_So, you better be ready for this_, he thought slightly spooked. Yet, not as spooked as he imagined he would be.

ooo

Jack hated long, agonizing goodbyes. They made him uneasy and uncomfortable. And, more importantly, they clouded his focus on what was lying ahead of them.

_Better make this quick_.

Mikele and Ranja were lingering in the background, talking to Danny. Mania had taken off as soon as they left the catacombs and was no where to be seen. Maybe she didn't like long goodbyes either.

It was time.

He checked his rifle one last time while Carter squeezed as much of Teal'c's drug into her backpack as she could manage. Teal'c, who's ashen skin complexion worried Jack more than he would admit even to himself, carried one of the pickaxes as if it was a staff. He stood stoically, still wearing his monk robes, waiting for them. Unhealthy skin color aside, Teal'c still seemed like a rock despite not being his usual fit and healthy self. Reliable strength. Jack sure hoped it wasn't just a smokescreen.

"You go ahead," he told them when Carter closed her backpack. "Danny and I will be there in a minute."

He got two nods of acknowledgment and they moved out.

Jack untied Thor from the tree where Mikele had left him. He fed the mule one last treat and tousled the tuft of mane between his ears. "Take care of those kids for me, huh? I'm leaving you in charge."

Thor shoved his muzzle into Jack's chest, leaving spots of grass colored mule drool on his t-shirt.

"Yeah, that's really gross, thank you." He tugged at the reins and Thor followed willingly as Jack walked over to where the kids hung out by the shelter's entrance. Mikele's face was pale and closed up, a stark contrast to his red hair gleaming in the midday sun. Ranja lurched forward and hugged Jack's legs.

"Why do you haveta go?"

Jack picked him up and gave the small boy a quick squeeze before settling him on the mule's back. "I need to go home."

"You are home. Here." Ranja wiped a hand over his face. "Why would you wanna go anywhere else?"

"Because I belong with my people. I can't stay," Jack said softly.

"But you'll visit?" Raja asked with a dark scowl.

"Yeah." When he had promised Mania the same thing, before he'd left to find Teal'c, he had believed there was a possibility of making that happen. By now he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to visit. But what was he supposed to say? And then again, lying to them wasn't fair. "Maybe," he amended his answer. "If I can."

Ranja shook his head, his black hair flying. "No no no. You promised. You have to visit because of..."

"Ranja, stop it. We talked about all this. Don't be such a baby." Mikele took over Thor's reins and cast his brother a glare. Then he turned his eyes on Jack. "Sorry about that."

He shook his head. Nothing to be sorry for. "Take care of yourself, kid."

"Yeah. You too. Good luck." A small grin appeared on the boy's face. "Danny told us you have a big house and a yard. And tons of money. How could you leave all that behind and live in lowly Ba'th like a beach bum?"

"I kind of forgot about the house and the yard. And the money," Jack said with a shrug. "And it wasn't really that much money." Though, compared to what these people had for a living, it certainly was.

"You are strange. How can you forget something like that?" Mikele snorted. Then he opened a leather bag that was slung over his left shoulder and pulled out a battered cigar box. "Mania wants you to have that." His other hand reached into the pocket of his baggy pants and retrieved a small clay figure. "And that's from me. So you won't forget us."

Jack took the clay figure, but refused to take the box, instantly knowing what was in it. "I can't take that. It's her only treasure. She worked so hard for every one of those princess and fairy cards."

"She insists. You must," Mikele said curtly. "Don't insult her by not accepting it. She'll be heartbroken if you don't take it."

"I'll take it," Danny piped up and Mikele thrust Mania's box into his arms.

Jack searched the area with his eyes, hoping he'd see the little girl lurking somewhere close by, but it seemed to be just him and the boys out here. He took a closer look at the clay figure and had to smile. It was a mule, there was no doubt about it.

"Thanks," he said. Then he reached into his own pocket and pulled out his dog tags. They probably didn't hold a candle to the lighter he'd given Skaara, but Mikele took them solemnly, fingered the soft rubber frames and the hard metal slip. "O'Neill, Jack," he read aloud. "799 36 6412 B NEG RC. What do all the numbers mean?"

"It's my identification code," Jack said, not in the mood to explain blood type and religion origins. "Where I come from every soldier has his own tags to wear."

"Jorge believes you used to be a soldier. So he was right. But won't you need them when you get home? So that they know who you are?"

"Nah, they can give me new ones."

Mikele closed his hand around them, then thought better of it and pulled them over his head. "Hadis needs me. I gotta go."

"Yeah, me too."

They shook hands like business partners or friends who were just saying goodbye for the day. Mikele moved away fast, dragging Thor with him. Ranja twisted around and waved at Jack.

Jack waved back and was grateful for the small hand that attached itself to his own. He looked down and forced out a lopsided smile. "Ready to hit the road, buddy?"

The star child shoved the cigar box under his shirt and nodded. He looked sad, but composed.

"Okay. Remember how this is supposed to go down?" They walked towards the theater.

"I'll hide behind all of you, not peeking out and being quiet like a mouse. And if there's shooting and running and fighting one of you will take me with you or tell me what to do," Danny obediently repeated what had been drummed into him by Jack, Daniel, Teal'c and Carter.

"And you heard that, right? All of it. The being quiet part and the part where it says to wait until we tell you what to do?"

"Yes."

Jack sure hoped Danny understood that what was going to happen wasn't a game. He wasn't exactly sure how much of adult Daniel's memories were left with the kid after the reunion had taken place.

He had noticed some things were missing. Danny knew they had rescued Teal'c from the monastery, he remembered talking to the monks and he knew Teal'c was sick. But he didn't seem to make the connection between Teal'c being sick and the missing symbiote. And this morning, when they had explained to him about going home Danny only seemed to have a vague understanding of the Stargate and the rings.

But he had known that 'home' was Earth and he had even said he was looking forward to seeing Doc Janet and General Hammond. It all seemed a bit scrambled in the little guy's head, but it didn't seem to bother him, so Jack hadn't forced the memory issue yet. Now he kinda wished he had, just to make sure Danny would go with the program.

He reached down and picked him up, settling him on his hip so that they were eye to eye. "Danny?"

Serious blue orbs gazed back at him. "Jack?"

"It's very important that you'll do exactly what you're told."

"Okay."

"Because we're a team and we need to stick together and trust each other. You know what a team player is?"

Danny tilted his head and, after giving it some apparently serious thought, he replied, "Someone who works with the others on his team and looks out for his team. It's what SG-1 does. No one gets left behind." His eyes narrowed and his hand came up to his mouth, the thumb sneaking in. "You won't leave anyone behind, right Jack?"

He shook his head. "No, not gonna happen. We are all going home. But you have to promise me to work with the team."

Danny slung his arm around Jack's neck and squeezed. "I promise!"

Jack didn't stop to take one last look at the arena when they reached the entrance to the catacombs. He didn't need to have that final view. He would always carry this place with him. Like his cabin in Minnesota these ruins had become home away from home. Except he might never come back here for vacation.

Carter and Teal'c had left one of the lamps by the entrance. It was already lit and he picked it up. They descended into the labyrinth of tunnels, Jack's footfalls the only sound in the semi darkness.

"Jack?" Danny piped up just when they took the last turn.

"Yeah?"

There was a long stretch of silence and when they entered the ring room, Danny whispered, "It's... nothing."

Jack patted his leg. "We'll be fine."

Carter, Teal'c and Daniel stood together, their figures only lit by two of the kerosine lamps on the ground.

"The control panel seems intact, sir," Carter greeted him. Her weapon of choice was one of the pain sticks they had taken from the monks. Daniel was carrying the other one. Teal'c had his pickax and Jack's hunting knife.

Depending on what awaited them on the other side of these rings they had a fighting chance at best.

He put Danny down and Daniel took the boy's hand.

"Move out," Jack ordered and they took position inside the ring, elbow to elbow, back to back, sheltering the kid in the middle.

Jack pushed the ring controls and quickly joined them in the gap they had left for him. It was that precise moment when something shot out of a dark corner and attached itself to Jack's leg. His yell of surprise and alarm was muted by the rings shooting upwards and the beam whisking them away.

**IV**

He grabbed the girl's arm and pushed her behind him, out of any line of fire, as soon as they materialized and the rings released them.

"You have to be very quiet," Danny told her in a hushed voice.

"Vewy quiet," Mania whispered back, loud enough to be heard by SG-1 and the five men surrounding the rings, aiming staffs at them. Running towards them on a graveled road, flanked by two more guards, was a sixth. He stopped short just outside the rings, in front of Jack; a tall, bulky guy in some dress blues outfit, seemingly unarmed. The khaki jacket sported several insignias and medals at the lapels and chest.

Jack had his rifle ready to shoot dress blues guy, but since no one seemed to be in a hurry to open fire, yet, he waited.

"I am impressed," dress blues said. "This has never happened before. Not in my time and never in my forefathers' time. We are lucky that our transporter is always well guarded. Though this is the first time the transporter guards have a situation like this."

"Well, there's a first time for everything." Jack raised his rifle a bit higher. "Tell your men to stand down."

Dark eyes assessed SG-1 quickly and a sardonic smile curled dress blues' lips. "I would say you are in a disadvantage here, Colonel O'Neill. You are in no position to dictate anything "

"I'm in the position to shoot you and worry about the consequences later," Jack said calmly.

"You would not risk the lives of your people, or those kids you dragged along," dress blues countered.

"Oh, I don't know. I might take my chances. My people eat guys like yours for breakfast. Don't let the outer impression fool ya." If they really intended to kill them, they would have fired the moment the rings had gone away. He tapped the trigger with his forefinger, flexing the muscles in his arm.

Dress blues raised a hand to his men and the staffs were lowered a fraction. Jack removed his finger.

"As it happens we have no intention of harming you. You are free to go," Dress blues said. "Once we have finished negotiating."

"Negotiating?" Daniel asked. "What kind of negotiations?"

"A treaty for an alliance with your world. And the conditions to make that possible."

"Sure. Sounds great. I'm all for that. Send us home and we'll be back with the forms for you to fill out and sign," Daniel said enthusiastically. "Our government will be delighted to get an allay like you. But we are the first contact team so we have to go and talk to them ourselves. In person. On Earth."

Jack gave him a long sideways look.

Daniel shrugged. "It's worth a try."

"Nice... try."

"Thank you. I'm a bit out of practice, but..."

"No, no, that was... "

"A bit over the top?"

"Nah, it was... Okay, yeah, maybe. A little bit."

"Colonel O'Neill, if you and your people will please follow us to the facility. The negotiations are taking place there as we speak," dress blues interrupted.

"What do you mean; negotiations are already taking place? With whom?" Carter spoke up.

"The day before today a delegation of your world arrived in a ship. A very impressive ship, I may add," dress blues explained, giving his soldiers another hand sign. Immediately they stood down.

Jack waited another second, then did the same.

"A ship?" Carter asked, with raised eyebrows.

"The X-302," Daniel replied slowly.

"The X-302 isn't ready for launch. Not by a long shot," Carter cautioned.

"Not when you left Earth, no. But you were gone a long time," Daniel reminded her. "She has been ready for a while now."

She frowned. "That's true." Then she blinked. "Wait. How do you know?"

"Let's just say I kept an eye on things here and there," Daniel said with a wry grin.

"Stalking us?" Jack couldn't resist. It felt nice to fall back into the good old routine of their bantering. He'd always thought it was a great way to ease the tension in certain situations. It also served for good distraction – confuse the enemy and then blindside him.

In this case, however, Jack felt a bit blindsided himself. He had expected a fight, had even expected this to go down badly. The concept of just walking out of here because rescue had already arrived seemed too good to be true.

"Watching over you." Daniel took Mania's hand and she didn't object. She was too busy trying to take everything in at once with saucer-eyes. It wasn't a place Jack would tag as very exciting, but it was so totally different from Ba'th Town, it simply rendered her speechless.

"Ah." Jack tugged Danny to his side and signaled for SG-1 to follow dress blues who started toward what looked suspiciously like a pyramid that had been cut off at the top. It was only three stories high now, and someone had put a blacktop flat-roof where the upper levels and the top used to be. The building's left side showed several hangar doors and runways Jack concluded that's where the gliders were.

In the far distance he could see the gate standing tall against a clouded, gray sky. They trudged over graveled ground. Instead of trees there were high, black watchtowers. Jack counted six along the road they walked on and two more close to the gate. He had a grand view of everything because there were no hills or valleys. They were surrounded by flat land, slate-colored gravel walkways and paved roads. The only building was the one they were approaching.

Yep, this was a military base and Jack wasn't fooled by the slight run-down outside looks of it. He spotted cameras along the pyramid's walls and high voltage fences guarding the gate and the pyramid.

"You really believe they came for us? With the X-302?" he asked Daniel.

"Actually, yes."

"After all that time?" He was doubtful.

"Well, the gate didn't connect with Ba'th anymore after you went through, so that wasn't an option. Then they had to get the ship ready. And it's going to take a while, even with hyper drive, to get here."

"That indicates they knew we weren't dead. Even though the gate didn't connect and there was literally no way of knowing what had happened," Carter threw in over her shoulder.

"You found a way to let GeneralHammond know where we are, DanielJackson," Teal'c concluded. "You have once again saved our lives."

Daniel cringed a little, bit his lip and shrugged it off. "I might have nudged Jonas in the right direction. I'm sure he got the ball rolling and General Hammond came through for you."

They left the gravel walkway and continued on pavement. The entrance, much closer now, was a huge rolling shutter. It was guarded by two soldiers holding staffs.

Danny tugged at Jack's hand, whispering frantically, "I need to go."

Go? Go, where? Yeah, right. Jack tightened his grip on Danny's hand. "Oh, no, you don't. You'll stay right here. Remember what we talked about?"

"But, Ja-ack, I really have to."

He reached down and swung him up. "Nope, you really don't."

"He'th gotta pee," Mania piped up. "Me too."

Jack stared at her, then at Danny. "Oh, go-go? As in... Oy."

"I really really gotta go," Danny confirmed, on the verge of a whine.

"Okay, okay. Just... can you hold it a little while longer?"

Danny bit his lip but nodded reluctantly.

A moment later they had reached the entrance and dress blues talked to the guards who addressed him as Commander Ihmahli. The shutter slid open, revealing a large, round and brightly lit hallway.

No torches or gloominess. And the overbearing golden interior was completely gone. Someone had watched and taken notes of Ba'th's version of Extreme Makeover, if there was one.

Jack saw a dozen white doors, all locked. None of them had a bathroom sign.

"This is our moon facility. We have one more base stationed down on Ba'th," dress blues explained. "There has never been the need for a stronger presence of the Armed Forces on Ba'th. We like to keep our operations low keyed."

"No wonder. The memory stamp takes care of a lot of things, I assume," Carter said coldly. "And if people act up they just get re-stamped."

"Oh, it has never been that simple, Major Carter. You miss judge us," dress blues said mildly. "But may I take you to the briefing room? I am sure you would like to greet your people. They are very anxious to meet you. Once they arrived we tried to find you via your Mentors. Unfortunately we discovered that you had left your locations and we didn't know where you had gone. Your Mentors weren't very forthcoming in the matter. So it is a great relief that you managed to find us instead."

Carter opened her mouth, but dress blues shook his head. "They have not been harmed in any way. Interrogated, yes, because we wanted to learn about your true locations, but not harmed."

"Where is Jadah? And Björk? I want to talk to them," Carter asked sharply. "What did you do to them? Did you re-stamp them?"

"Your Mentors' stamps have been adjusted just to make sure that they will not go public with what they know. Now that you are here your Mentors will be released and sent home. We have relieved them of their Mentor duties, but decided not to put them through trial for treason."

"But you messed with their memories. And why would we believe you let them go?" Jack asked.

Looking back at him over his shoulder, Ihmahli replied, "Ba'th is on the threshold of changes. A new era if you will. Hopefully our world will benefit from those changes. Your Mentors must not talk about their knowledge or about anything that has happened. Your people use the term classified, I believe. However, their memories have not been altered. We did not arrest them in the lights of negotiations with the Tau'ri, as an act of showing our willingness to change our ways."

"Just like that?" Jack exchanged a look with Carter, who shook her head in disbelief.

"Well, your government has presented us with an opportunity. Also we believe that your memory stamps were flawed in the first place. It is the only explanation for your ability to remember anything at all. The system is very old and it is probably becoming ineffective."

"One more reason to get rid of it," Carter sniped.

"Follow me, please." Ihmahli hurried across the slate marble floor. He seemed to almost slide over the smooth surface.

Jack would hate to be the cleaning staff around here.

A moment later they entered a room not unlike most briefing rooms Jack had encountered on Earth military bases. Long table, comfortable chairs, projector screen on one wall, refreshments on another table in a corner.

The occupants of the chairs on the right side on the table all rose at once and they all stared at them, kind of awestruck. On the table's left side two civilian people – Jack tagged them as either diplomats or scientists - from Ba'th stayed seated but glanced at them with curiosity.

Jack's gaze wandered from Jonas Quinn to Lou Ferretti and a suit he had never met before. However, it was the man to the far right who got his undivided attention. The man who had, without any doubt, moved heaven and earth to get the X-302 launched and all the way across the galaxy to find them. The only man who would be bold or insane enough to undertake S&R because glowy Daniel had somehow gotten through to Jonas with a message.

It was there and then that another piece of the puzzle slid back into place and, for the first time, Jack really grasped the meaning of SG-1 being part of something much bigger. He felt a huge amount of gratitude towards Hammond – to all of those who had worked their asses off and jumped through hoops in order to get SG-1 back. The SGC was a micro cosmos of its own and its people were a close-knit community with their own code of honor.

'No one gets left behind' had a much more literal meaning under Hammond's command than anywhere else Jack had served under before.

And yet there was still a dark whisper of doubt about whether or not SG-1 was still part of that micro cosmos.

"General." Jack stepped forward.

"Colonel... Jack." Hammond rounded the table and the smile on his face showed tenfold in his twinkling blue eyes. "SG-1..." The general's eyes widened another fraction. "Doctor Jackson?"

"We picked him up somewhere along the way," Jack said.

"It's... a long story," Daniel added. "It's good to see you, sir."

Hammond shook his head. "You people never cease to amaze me." Then his focus settled on Jack again. "And who is this young man?"

"Oh. That's Danny. He's... that's a long story, too, sir."

Danny started squirming. "Ja-ack..."

Crap. The potty problem. "Okay, okay." Jack grabbed Mania's hand and turned to dress blues guy. "We need a bathroom. Quick."

Ihmahli grimaced, like he had a bad taste in his mouth, but said, "One of my guards will show you the way."

With a hasty, "Sorry, sir, but it's kinda urgent," to Hammond, Jack hurried after the guard leading the way across the hall.

They stopped at one of the white doors and their guard indicated for them to go in while he waited outside.

The bathroom was finished in the same slate marble design as the hallway floor. Everything was polished to a shine. Two large wall mirrors above the sinks made the room appear much larger than it actually was. There were two stalls and once Jack had ushered each kid into one of them, he heard Mania ooh-ing and aww-ing over all the 'thiny glittewy pwettieneth'.

Danny appeared first, relief all over his face. The sinks were too big and far up for him to reach the faucet so Jack hoisted him up and helped him wash his hands.

Just as they found the paper towels, Mania danced out of her stall, pirouetting like a ballerina. "Thith ith wike a pawace! Ith all tho pwetty an' thiny! Do yoo live in a houthe like that, Jack?"

Jack sat Danny on the counter by the sink and scooped Mania up. "Nope, no shiny prettiness in my house. Here, wash your hands."

She held them under the running water, then squeezed the tube of soap until her palms were covered in foam. "Ohhh, thith thmellth soooo good. Do yoo have thoap wike that, Jack?"

"Yeah, kinda," he replied absently as he watched the soap in Mania's hands turn into bubbles.

She clapped her hands and some of the bubbles burst, but some floated upwards to the mirror where they hovered, a play of colors in the bathroom lights. "Thoooooo pwettieeee!"

"Wait till you have bubble baths," Danny said. "You're really gonna love those. Jack? Do you have a bathtub? I forgot."

"Yeah, sure, I have a bathtub."

"A big one? With wunning water?" Mania asked happily. She blew away another bubble, then she looked at Danny as she was rinsing her hands under the running water. "Did yoo bwing me pwinceth and faiwy box?"

"Yes. I have it here." Danny patted his shirt where he had shoved the cigar box under.

Jack had an epiphany.

He quickly sat the girl down beside Danny. Handing her a bunch of paper towels, he eyeballed the two little conspirators. He thought Mania had tagged along in a spur of the moment because she didn't want him to leave. He couldn't believe they had staged this. Then again, this was Daniel. He shouldn't be surprised.

"You set this up? You actually _planned_ this?"

"It wath eathy," Mania replied with a huge smile.

"Oh, easy, was it? You have any idea how dangerous jumping into those rings is once they are activated?" They could have cut her in half. She could have been shot the moment they materialized again because she had been in the line of fire. Only briefly until Jack had pulled her away, but it could have been that one moment too long.

He shook his head. Of course she couldn't know that. She was five, for Pete's sake. So was Danny – approximately anyway. But Danny, adult memories or not, had been told to keep his head down and not to do anything stupid. Which, naturally, included trying to drag his friend along for the ride.

And again... this was Daniel. And he was... four, five...ish.

Jack took a deep breath. "Let me take an educated guess, Danny Jackson. This was your idea."

The star child sucked in his bottom lip and ducked his head. "Mikele said it was a good plan. He said we should do it."

"Mikele said it was a good plan? And what exactly WAS the plan?"

"To take Mania home with us," Danny murmured.

"Danny, she already has a home. And a family." Jack tugged the wadded paper towels from Mania and threw them into the trash can by the sink. "What were you thinking?"

"You can't send her back now. No one gets left behind. You promised." Danny slid closer to his friend, putting an arm around her back to hug her.

"I didn't make any specific promises and we can't take her with us. I'm sorry, but that's the end of it," Jack said, trying to harden his heart against the two sets of pleading eyes in front of him.

"If she seeks ass...asylum on Earth, she could stay," Danny pointed out, but he didn't sound very sure of himself. "Teal'c did that. I don't know why anymore, but he came to us from somewhere else and asked to stay. And you let him stay."

"That was different," Jack snapped.

Danny stared at him, honest confusion written all over his face. "Why? Why was it different?"

"Because he needed help. They would have killed him if he'd stayed."

Danny's mouth formed a perfect little 'o' and his eyes widened.

He didn't remember.

Jack sighed. "It was just... different, okay? And Teal'c is an adult. Mania can't just decide to leave." He cupped her face to make sure she focused on what he was saying. "Your mama doesn't want you to leave, honey. She'll be worried sick. And you'd miss her too. And what about Ranja? And Mikele?"

"Mikele thaid yoo have a big houthe and awe wich. He thaid I'd get my own woom and ed-u-cushion. He thaid I could wive wike a pwinceth. And that mama would be pwoud if I got thmawt and know how to tawk wight." Her voice started trembling on the last sentence and two big tears were rolling down her cheeks.

Jack pulled her forward until her head was resting against his chest. Stroking her matted red mane, he said, "Your mama loves you no matter how you talk. And you are already very smart. Mikele is working now, he can afford to send you and Ranja to school next summer."

"He thaid I have a bettew wive with yoo," Mania sobbed. "And I dunno wanna thweep with thtrange wich men when I'm big. I dunno wanna wive in a owd diwty houthe and wowk all day and night wike mama doeth."

A cold chill ran down Jack's spine. He had always believed Mania to be a carefree, happy child. That she didn't worry much about her future as long as she had her princess cards and vivid imagination. She had her own ways to make her little world look pretty with her dreams and games and little things that kept her content.

He'd had no idea she already expected to work as a prostitute like her own mother. That she had such a clear understanding about how her life was branded by poverty and circumstances.

He had hoped that the princess of Ba'th had a couple more years until reality would chase away the dreams and innocent games.

"You won't have to do what your mama does," he heard himself say. "You'll go to school and get a better job. One day, you can move to the city and make enough money to support your folks."

He gently pushed her away so that she could look at him. "You just have to focus on that. Trying your very best in school. Because that's what it takes to get a better life." _And not making babies with the first guy you meet._ But he didn't have the heart to tell her that.

"Ed-u-cuthion?" She sniffled.

"Education, yes. You're the princess of Ba'th. You'll ace it."

"The other kidth, the kidth that go to thcoow, waugh at me 'cuth I can't tawk wike them." Mania pulled up her nose and fresh tears appeared. "I ith no pwintheth, Jack. I ith juth dumb Mania."

"You're not dumb! And you're like a real princess to me!" Danny wrapped both arms around her, but his eyes were on Jak alone.

_Fix this, please. _

Jack wished he could.

They had to return to that briefing room and go on with whatever negotiations Hammond and the Ba'th authorities were working on. He didn't have the time or even the magic wand to 'fix this'.

He ripped more paper towels from the distributor on the wall and gently dabbed at Mania's face to dry her tears. "Danny is right, you know? You're not dumb. But you have to believe that. Here." He touched her heart. "And here." He tapped her temple. "You can learn anything you want. But you have to really want to. You have to want it bad enough to work for it. You may not be a real princess, but you're a tough cookie."

In a perfect world that little speech would have made a difference. Would have given Mania the means to believe in herself and to grow up into a strong, independent woman. Jack had no idea how much his little pep talk was worth in real life. But it was all he could give her.

She nodded and he handed her towels to blow her nose. "The first step to success is positive thinking. Give me a smile, princess of Ba'th."

She grimaced, then sighed and gave him a smile. It was a sad one, but it was genuine. He gave her the thumb's up. "That's my girl. Now... we have to go back and join the others. Ready for a round of boring talks and formalities?"

Mania wrinkled her nose. "I dunno wike bowing."

"But that's what negotiations always are," Danny said. "Daniel is really good at them. Jack isn't. But Jack draws funny stick figures when he's bored."

Things like that the kid remembered?

He helped them to slide off the counter and took their hands. "If you try real hard to be quiet, I'm gonna draw you some."

"We have to be _very_ quiet, quiet as fishies," Danny elaborated as they walked down the hallways followed by their guard. "And not interrupt the general when he talks. That's the bald man. He's the boss. He's very important. Even Jack has to do as he says."

"Ith he wike a king? Can he make Jack take me with yoo?"

Danny opened his mouth, but Jack quickly shook his head. "No, he can't. We had a deal, right? You are going home, to your family."

"And go to thcoow and become vewy thmawt," Mania sighed.

"That's it. That's how it works."

"I'll come. When I'm big, I'll come and get you," Danny said with feeling, giving Jack a heated glare. "And then we can go and live wherever we want to. And do whatever we wanna do."

"Do yoo pwomithe?"

"Yes."

Jack saw the determined look on the child's face and had not a shred of doubt that Danny would do whatever was in his power to keep that promise, no matter how many years it took.

ooo

Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose. As much as he enjoyed having his body back, headaches were definitely not an upside of that.

They had been at it for hours now. Or so it felt. Without a watch, Daniel could only estimate the time they had spent in this room, talking the talk and juggling the balls of diplomacy. He wasn't the spokesman for Earth here and merely had to observe, but that didn't make it more exciting. On the contrary.

Doctor Finnigan, the diplomat Earth had sent along with Hammond, was doing this by the book, step by step. The Earth and Ba'th contingents had already spent one day doing this; getting to know each other's policies, determining conditions, ground rules and points of common interest on both sides.

Finnigan had worked out the first layout of a mining treaty. It was solid and waterproof as far as Daniel could tell. Of course it would need refining and some work on the details as negotiations continued. The final outcome depended on whether or not Sam could uninstall the stamping device or at least sever its connection to the gate.

Jonas and Feretti had accompanied her, and the two physicists from Ba'th underground, to where she had examined the stamping technology. She had been carefully optimistic when she returned, but the technology was very advanced. And while she was sure she could cut the connection between the gate and the stamping facilities, there was a force field in place she needed to disable first.

She had requested permission to beam up to the X-302 to see if any of the equipment on board might help her to solve that problem. Both Ba'th scientists, Jonas and Feretti had gone with her.

Daniel kind of wished he'd had a reason to go with them, too.

Right now things weren't going as smoothly down here as everyone would have wanted them to go.

"Every citizen of Ba'th has the right to do whatever they want. Within reason. No one is restricted to certain life choices if they manage to overcome their boundaries without taking illegal action. The stamps only put in a setting, they don't control people's minds," Ihmahli pointed out to a question from Hammond about whether or not the stamps included some kind of active mind control.

"Free will, my ass! None of us had a choice when we came through that gate and got our memories sucked from our brains," Jack snapped. "And while we're at it - your so called _overcoming boundaries_ only applies for men. Ask Carter if she had the right to," he made air quotations, "_overcome her boundaries_. She could've done a heck of a lot for this world, but she was slapped down because she's a woman."

"I apologize for any inconvenience you and your people suffered during your stay here," Ihmahli replied stiffly.

"As you should," Teal'c said gloomily.

"Don't bother sending a fruit basket. Not good enough," Jack added acidly.

"Colonel O'Neill, that's enough," Hammond interrupted curtly. More gently he added, "No one is blaming you for being angry. In fact, you have every right to be. But now isn't the time."

Jack backed down with gritted teeth and narrowed eyes. Teal'c merely continued to stare at Ihmahli.

Daniel suppressed a sigh. There were a lot of anger issues here. Deception and mental abuse, Sam had called it earlier. But over the course of these negotiations it had become clear that Ba'th authorities wanted their help badly enough to compromise and change some of their politics.

It turned out that Earth had knocked at Ba'th's door at just about the right time. Their authorities had economy and money issues to battle and this new treaty, which included trading arrangements as well as mining rights, was – according to Ihmahli – like a gift from the gods.

They had found common ground and needed to maintain it if they were going to return home with a treaty.

They had had their own private little briefing once Jack had returned from the bathroom, to catch up and swap news. It turned out that forging a treaty had been the main reason Hammond had finally gotten permission to take the X-302 to Ba'th. Apparently SG-1's original mission here had been to establish first contact and negotiate naquadah mining rights. It had been the Tok'ra who tipped off Hammond about this planet being a rich naquadah source. The plan had been for Earth to open negotiations and involve the Tok'ra later in the deal.

Whether or not the Tok'ra had known about the venus-trap remained a mystery. Jacob and Selmak were on a long term undercover mission deep in the territory of Ba'al, so they hadn't been involved in any of this. Hammond said he doubted the Tok'ra had known about the trap since sending anyone here would have been pointless and Daniel agreed.

When Jonas had decided to pass Daniel's message on to Hammond all those weeks ago, the general had used Earth's interest in naquadah as a bait to get the rescue under way.

Doctor Finnigan cleared his throat and rustled the papers in his hands. "If we may continue? Commander Ihmahli, regarding your point of keeping the existence of the stargate, the stamping device and anything connected to it classified – Earth does understand that concept very well. We will not interfere in your domestically political matters as long as..."

"Sure, why care. It's not our problem," Jack's voice cut through Finnigan's words. "Has it occurred to anyone that these people have a right to know where they came from? Or where their ancestors came from? Some might still have families on their home worlds."

Finnigan, who's ears had taken on an interesting shade of red, said with an audible sigh, "What has happened here in the past isn't relevant for this treaty. Ba'th's authorities' decision to keep the stargate and the existence of this facility hidden from the public isn't an issue as long as the abuse through the stamping device will stop."

Ihmahli nodded grimly. "We will not use it anymore if it can be shut down. We never had the means to uninstall the device. Everything, from the opening of the cha'apaai to the travelers being transferred into this facility and given the stamps worked automatically. We can monitor the stamping and make adjustments to the stamp. We can give the subjects a certain social background and integrate the original memories and emotions into the new memory patterns. But we can neither remove nor turn off the stamps. We can equip Mentors with different stamps which will automatically interact with the stamps of their subjects to some degree. But our background knowledge is very limited. We could only re-program it to fit our needs once Isis was gone. We had no choice but to continue using it."

"Why didn't you just blow it up if you didn't _want_ to use it anyway?" Jack asked.

"It is connected to the cha'apaai in a very complex way and if we destroy the device by using explosives, we would destroy this whole complex and the cha'apaai in the process. This base is very important as a planet's defense. We have gliders and weapons here and bunkers for evacuation if needed. Over the years after the gods left the cha'apaai didn't bring many travelers anymore and we considered those that still came through acceptable casualties."

"You could have buried the gate," Jack pushed on relentlessly, his eyes never leaving Ihmahli's face.

The commander gripped his pen tightly. Daniel could see the man's knuckles going white even from where he was seated. He cast a glance at Hammond who was watching Ihmahli very closely. Apparently the general had decided to let Jack dig a little deeper here after all.

Ihmahli said, "Authorities decided against that action. I am just following orders. The term chain of command should be familiar to you, Colonel."

"Yeah, well, I'm a bit out of practice with all those military procedures," Jack quipped, but his eyes were hard and unyielding.

"Authorities had their reasons. Do you know every thought and every strategy behind the orders you are given?" Ihmahli returned Jack's look with equal fierceness.

Turning to the room at large he continued, "Anyone who came through the portal with useful knowledge or academic degrees was hired to serve the gods and, to some degree, our society. We were allowed a certain industrial development, but it was monitored very closely and no one was allowed to share their knowledge freely as long as Isis ruled here.

"When the gods left we opened up the archives and founded the academy. Madinah City has been built on and around the grounds of the god's research facilities. We have worked very hard to make it our main city. And to give everyone a fair chance to come here and build a career in either science, retail or any kind of business company," Ihmahli ended his explanation.

"Every _man_," Jack corrected.

"It is our belief that women have their own place in society, yes. But they, too, have a right to education and employment," Ihmahli replied stiffly.

"And what if that little girl," Jack gestured at Mania who was peacefully asleep in one of the chairs, "turns out to be a genius in physics? What if she's a math crack?"

Ihmahli snorted. "That one? She's a lowly Ba'th child. She's probably not even able to read. She is half wild and without manners."

Jack raised his left eyebrow. "So much for overcoming your boundaries, eh? Humor me."

"Fine. If she ever goes to school she could probably find a well paid work at Madinah," Ihmahli said. "As a lab assistant for example."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Are you deliberately missing the point here?"

"Jack..." Daniel made a conscious effort to not let Jack's rage consume him, too. But it was hard to stay objective in the light of what had happened to his friends. And to so many other people on this planet, the discrimination of women being the least of the issues. But no one could blame them for wanting to lash out.

Jack, presented with the opportunity to vent further, cast him a steely glare. "What? Just because women have their reproductive organs on the inside instead on the outside doesn't mean..."

Reproductive organs? Really? That was some linguistic strike of... Daniel couldn't even find a fitting term.

"What are reproductive organs?" Danny piped up. He was in Jack's lap, knuckling his eyes and yawning. But apparently he was still able to follow conversations. Some of them anyway.

Jack patted the blond head. "I'll explain later." After a moment of thought he said, "Actually, Daniel is going to explain it to you. He's very good at explaining stuff."

"Thank you," Daniel said with a sour smile. He should have known Jack would get back to him for the guys-making-babies subject.

"Revenge is sweet." Jack smirked.

Danny went back to dozing and sucking his thumb. Both kids had been exceptionally good about being quiet and not interrupting so far. Ihmahli had attempted to take them to another room with one of his guards, but Danny and Mania had clung to Jack like glue stuck to paper and refused to be separated from him. At first they had looked at Mania's princess cards and then Jack had given them his note pad and pen to draw. At some point one of the guards had provided snacks and drinks for everyone and now the kids were, more or less, napping. Daniel suspected they had been lulled into the sleep of boredom by all the talking.

Hammond exchanged a look with Finnigan before he addressed Jack sharply. "Colonel, this is getting way out of hand. You had your say – on several occasions I might add. Give it a rest. I'm sure you remember what a direct order is?"

"I think I have vague memories of that, sir."

"We will take action to prevent a continuation of these politics and we already made sure that authorities know how we feel about your abduction, but right now we need to move forward," Hammond added, his eyes firmly locked with Jack's.

Jack seemed to literally bite his tongue. Finally he nodded. "Yes, sir. Just for the record – I don't trust these people any further than I could throw them. Sir."

"Duly noted, Colonel."

Jack pursed his lips, but didn't push it any further.

Finnigan, visibly relieved they were back on the main topic, said, "We will both benefit from the mining treaty. Our people are going to make sure there will be jobs for your people at the mines. We will also be in need of housing and food deliveries. And there maybe other business trades we could establish."

Ihmahli bowed his head. "Very well. I hope Major Carter will be successful."

As if on cue the door opened and Jonas entered, a grin on his face. "I have good news. Major Carter shut down the force field and opened the DHD. She removed a crystal and some other device. The venus-trap has been disabled. She is now working on unlocking our gate address so that SG-1 can go through ASAP." Jonas put his radio on the table in front of the general. "She can give you all the details herself, sir."

Ihmahli raised his eyebrows in surprise. "This fast?"

Jonas shrugged. "Major Carter is one of the best."

Jack and Teal'c looked quite smug and Hammond picked up the radio and started talking to Sam.

In the meantime Doctor Finnigan and Ihmahil sorted out several more points regarding the upcoming treaty. Daniel wished there was coffee instead of juice and water. His headache was climbing to its highest peak.

"Hey, you okay?" Jack asked quietly.

"Yeah." He massaged his temple with his fingertips. "I guess I need my glasses."

"Are you saying Oma gave you a new body but didn't upgrade it?"

"Apparently not."

"What about the appendix?"

"What about it?"

"If she didn't give it back to you, can I see your scar?" Jack whispered.

Daniel rolled his eyes, but smiled. And nodded.

Finally, after approximately half an hour that felt like walking through molasses, Ihmahli rose from his chair.

"My superiors will be very impressed by this. I need to report to them immediately. Please remain here until I return. Feel free to enjoy more refreshments." He gestured at the small table on the back wall where the guards had left plates with small sandwiches and drinks.

As if he had said the magic words, Mania opened her eyes and sat up, rubbing her sleepy eyes. Her red hair was even more tousled then before. "I ith hungwy again," she said and yawned widely, showing the gaps in her teeth Daniel was sure were the cause of the heavy lisp, at least partly.

Jack stood, with Danny in his arms, and turned to Hammond. "I'd like to take the girl home, sir."

"Jack, nooo..." Danny piped up.

Jack shook his head. "I'm sorry, kiddo. We can't. You know that."

Ihmahli replied quickly, "One of our guards will take her back to Ba'th. We need to question her first."

"Question?" Jack echoed, a dangerous edge to his voice. "Why?"

"She has seen this facility and was witness to these negotiations. We need to determine how much of our conversation she understood and make sure she will not talk about it to anyone," the commander replied sharply.

"She is five years old, for crying out loud," Jack snapped. "What are you going to do? Stamp her? You'd like that, eh? Mess with her mind so she won't remember anything? You can tell us you're not doing that to your people all you want. I'm not buying it."

"We will not stamp this child. We will just make sure she keeps quiet about what she has seen and heard here," Ihmahli replied.

Danny stared at Ihmahli with wide, alert eyes. "Are they going to interrogate Mania?"

"It is not an interrogation," Ihmahli said fiercely.

"Sounds like interrogation to me," Jack countered.

"Does that mean we can take her home with us now because she has to defect?" Danny stage-whispered to Jack. "Are they going to hurt her?"

"We are not going to hurt her," Ihmahli stated flatly.

General Hammond left his seat and rounded the table to stand beside Ihmahli. "May I suggest – as an act of good will and for the sake of our future relations – that one of my people will be allowed to attend this questioning?"

Ihmahli seemed to be indecisive. "This is highly unusual..."

Daniel said, "It might make things easier for everyone if Mania is accompanied by someone she knows. Someone she trusts."

Mania's head turned from left to right as she was following the exchange of words. Suddenly she scrambled to her feet on the chair and then - too quick for anyone to interfere - climbed on the table and stood there, hands on hips. "My mama thaith nevew to go with thtwange men! I ith onwy tawking to Jack!"

The base commander bristled with anger and Doctor Finnigan stared at the little lady, his mouth hanging open. Jonas looked as if he was biting the insides of his cheeks hard to keep in the laughter.

Daniel smothered his own grin as he took Danny from Jack.

"This is not a kindergarten," Ihmahli bellowed. "I will not allow these... lowly Ba'th guttersnipes," his glare wandered from Mania to Danny, "to create havoc on my base! They shouldn't even be here!"

"Careful, there. You are talking about my son and his best friend," Jack warned.

"Your _son_?" Hammond and Ihmahli asked as one, staring at Jack with different expressions on their face. The commander seemed disgusted, Hammond more stunned than anything.

"Long story, sir," Jack muttered in Hammond's direction.

In the middle of all that the door flew open as Sam and Feretti entered the briefing room.

"Sir, the gate is working again. We can gate home whenever we are ready," Feretti announced.

Sam raised her eyebrows. "Wow. What's going on?"

Ihmahli gritted his teeth. "We were just about to end the talks for today. Colonel O'Neill – if one of my guards and you would escort this... child... home and explain to her the meaning of classified... we would be grateful."

Mania whirled around to face the flabbergasted base commander. "I knowth how to keep thecweth! I ith no thupid." She stomped her little foot and crossed her arms.

Ihmahli frowned. "What did she say?"

"She knows what classified is," Danny translated, turning up his nose. "We won't tell anyone your boring military secrets. This place is ugly and no fun. No one wants to know about it anyway."

Daniel gave both kids the thumb's up.

Jack held out a hand to Mania. "I think you made your point, Princess."

She threw back her hair and stalked across the table, leaving small, dusty footprints all over the smooth top. She took the offered hand, allowing Jack to help her down.

A moment later, the princess of Ba'th, Jack, Feretti and one of Ihmahli's watchdogs had left the building. When the door had closed behind them, Hammond chuckled quietly and Jonas gazed at the ceiling.

But Danny, who was still in Daniel's arm, hid his face against Daniel's neck and went very quiet.

Finnigan clicked his pen and coughed. "I think we covered most of the basics now. Maybe it is time we meet with someone from your authorities, Commander Ihmahli."

"I will make arrangements."

"Very well. Commander, please inform your authorities that Major Carter will be present at one of our next meetings to answer any questions about the removal of the stamping device," Hammond said.

Ihmahli bit his lip. "Isn't there a male scientist you could send to explain these things to authorities? We are not used to women being this high ranked in either academics or the military."

Hammond smiled and replied, "Then they better get used to it. You said it yourself; your planet is at a threshold of change."

"I will inform my authorities," Ihmhali ground out.

Sam gave him a big, false smile. "I'm looking forward to it."

Hammond said, "I will escort SG-1 home as soon as Colonel O'Neill and Major Feretti have returned. Mr. Quinn – you and Major Feretti will stay here with Doctor Finnigan until we have a definite date and time to continue negotiations. When everything is settled, all of you return to the SGC through the gate."

Doctor Finnigan gave the general an acknowledging nod and Jonas said, "Yes, sir." Then he cleared his throat and added, "Sir, about my... err, the house..."

Hammond sighed. "Right. Don't worry, Mr. Quinn, I will explain the situation to the colonel." He clicked his radio and told the captain of the X-302 to stay in orbit until Feretti gave the order to return to Earth.

Daniel and Sam exchanged a look.

Here it was.

They were going home, back to their old lives. In Sam's, Jack's and Teal'c's case back to their real lives.

He saw his own thoughts mirrored in her eyes.

After seven months of absence - and in his case it had almost been a year now - how much of their old lives would still be there? And were they ready to just pick up where they had left?

_Not me_, Daniel thought with clarity, as he hugged Danny closer to him, _and not Jack. We are on the threshold of change, too. _


	3. Chapter 3

**V**

_Lucy, I'm home_, Jack thought awkwardly when the event horizon released him and his boots hit the metal ramp. His eyes swiped the familiar room, the bullet proof window to the control room. Walter and Siler were there, behind the glass, saluting.

They trudged down and there was good ole Doc Fraiser who had probably been on stand-by since the X-302 had left Earth orbit. All the SF stood down and at attention, staring at SG-1 with barely concealed amazement or wonder. Those guys were trained too well to show it too openly or start whispering, but there were raised eyebrows and signs of disbelief when Doctor Daniel Jackson came into view beside Jack, carrying a small version of himself.

SG-1 had the tendency to bounce back and get out of pretty tight spots alive, but seven months of being MIA was a long time even for the SGC's premier team.

Danny looked around the gate room with saucer-eyes. His thumb found his mouth and he ducked his head at the sight of all those SF with their guns.

Jack reached for him, but Danny shook his head and tightened his hold on Daniel's shoulder. He hadn't said a word to Jack since he had returned from Ba'th Town. Had gone completely silent and just clung to Daniel.

Jack knew he had fallen into disgrace the moment he had taken Mania away from Danny. He hadn't been able to 'fix this' the way the star child had envisioned it. Common sense told Jack he had done the right thing. Mania didn't belong here, she belonged with her family. But right now the feeling of having let down both children out-weighted common sense and rationality.

Hammond and Fraiser had a short talk and moments later SG-1 was on their way to the infirmary. Every single person they passed in the hallways turned around to stare at them.

Jack glanced sideways at Danny. "Welcome home, kiddo."

Danny quickly turned his head and buried his face against Daniel's neck, and Daniel gave Jack a helpless shrug as they walked on.

_We'll sort it out_, Jack thought. _Later, when this physical is out of the way. When we get some alone time. I'll talk to him, he'll understand. _

They all went through the usual procedures of being prodded and poked. Only due to their long absence and those 'implants' in their heads the prodding and poking took a heck of a lot longer and there were X-rays and MRI involved and more blood and urine tests than Jack cared for.

By the time Fraiser and her staff of nurses were done peering into every orifice – twice at least – and had drained him of most of his blood, Jack had a headache, a growling stomach and the strong longing to go straight back to Ba'th.

He had gotten glimpses of the doc dealing with Danny in between, had listened to her praise of how brave and what a sweetheart he was. Danny had shared with her that he was going to live with Daniel and that he remembered her, but not really very well.

Now, as Jack was standing by the bed next to the Daniels' – with only the drawn curtains between him and them – putting his BDU shirt back on, he heard Fraiser asking Danny about Ba'th.

"What was it like there?"

"It was bright. And sunny. There were beaches and ruins and the ocean," Danny said.

"That sounds absolutely wonderful. Honey, I need to take some of your blood. Do you remember how that works?"

"Uhhhh... Does it hurt? It does, right? It's with the needles..."

"I won't lie to you, Danny, it might sting a little. But it'll be over so fast, you will hardly feel it."

There was a long pause and then Daniel asked, "Do you want me to get Jack?"

A very selfish part of Jack waited for Danny to say 'yes, I want Jack'. All kids were afraid of needles and syringes... and when Danny got scared and teary, Jack would be there for him to hold him and help him through it. And all their troubles would be forgotten in the light of...

"Noo-oo, I don't need Jack," Danny mumbled. "I'm not a baby."

Jack waited with halted breath... and waited...

"There, see? That's it. I got all the blood I need from you now. My, you're really brave, Danny," Janet said.

"It almost only hurt a little bit," Danny pointed out.

"You did great," Daniel said.

"I'm a geek, not a wimp," Danny said briskly. "Being a geek is cool, right?"

Jack heard the smacking of hands as they high-fived each other and Daniel agreed. "Being a geek is the coolest thing ever. Geeks rule."

_That's my boy_, Jack thought with pride and just a slight sting of rejection.

He quickly closed the buttons of his shirt and left the infirmary.

He made his way to the briefing room where they were scheduled to meet in ten minutes. Just when he had entered the elevator, someone came running down the corridor.

"Colonel, wait up!"

Jack considered just letting the door slide shut. He wasn't in the mood for small talk and Jonas always wanted to chat and most of the time he was annoyingly upbeat.

Jonas had a small pile of books pressed to his chest with both hands. Him barreling down the corridor with those books in his arms and a pen stuck behind his ear had such a striking resemblance to Daniel... Jack almost grinned and pressed the 'hold' button.

Quinn zipped into the car, huffing out a, "Thanks!"

"Where's the fire?"

"Oh... just need to get these books back into my... Daniel's... "

"Hey, I know they stuck you in there and Daniel was gone. No one expected him to come back like," Jack snapped his fingers, "this. I'm sure they'll find you... or Daniel... a new office," They were never going to be best buddies, but Jonas had earned his place on SG-1 and Daniel was back. It was easy to give him some slack.

Jonas smiled. "Yeah. Daniel is pretty good about me using his stuff and hogging his office. But I guess coming back from the death puts things into a different perspective. Oh, and I will move out of your place as soon as I know where to go."

Jack felt his left eyebrow climb upwards. "What?"

Jonas shuffled his books into a different order. "I don't know how long it's gonna take them to clear you and all that, but I'll probably haul my stuff back to base. I left everything as it was. Well, I got a new microwave because yours was kind of... old. And there's a new TV, but I'll take that with me. You can keep the microwave, though. It wasn't very expensive. I planted some fuchsias and some mulberry bushes."

Jack felt the need to repeat himself more forcefully. "What?!"

"I think you should paint your garage. I wanted to do it, but didn't get around to that. Oh, and there's a new lawn mower because yours gave up on me this spring. The Air Force wouldn't pay for a new one so you kind owe me, but..."

"Jonas... hold it... right... there!"

Jonas snapped his mouth shut.

"Did you just say... and let's rewind to that... you will move out of MY place...?"

"Oh god. They haven't told you." Quinn blanched, then blushed within seconds. "I thought... never mind. I'm sorry. General Hammond thought it was the best way to keep it for you. I, uh, kept your truck, too."

"YOU are driving MY truck."

"Well, theoretically speaking it's my.." He winced. "Yes. I'm driving your truck. But you'll get it back of course."

"YOU planted mulberry in MY backyard?"

"Yes. I can... remove them?"

"Don't you know that mulberry multiplies like crazy? They'll take over MY backyard? Just like you've taken over MY house?"

"Um, no, but the berries are really good."

"Are _you_ sleeping in MY bed?" Jack asked, narrowing his eyes another fraction.

"Err, no, I'm… in the guest room."

Jack continued to stare him down. "What was wrong with my TV?"

"Nothing, it was just... old. The new one gets more stations and has better reception. No more snow during hockey games," Jonas said, brightening.

The elevator doors opened and Quinn made a hasty retreat. "I need to take these to my... the... office. I'll see you at the briefing, sir."

"We are SO going to talk," Jack growled after him.

"Yes. Sure. Later." Quinn quickly vanished around a corner.

Jack watched the doors close and let out a huff of annoyance.

Yep, going straight back to Ba'th seemed like a very good idea right now.

ooo

Sam entered her lab and stopped short as soon as she stepped through the doorway.

_My lab_, she thought.

But was it really still her lab?

She had avoided coming here the last two days. After their arrival she had spent a long time in the infirmary, then in an even longer briefing. They had eaten, rested for a couple of hours and tried to wrap their heads around the fact that time had not stood still at the mountain or in Colorado Springs. Yesterday they had been ordered back to the infirmary for more tests and then they had been interrogated – even though that particular word never crossed anyone's lips - by the NID.

Sam had been given a whole catalog of questions to answer, regarding their memory loss, their original mission, the technical details of the stamping mechanism and she had to sign a statement, declaring that she had not given away classified information or knowledge to any of Ba'th's citizens. She hadn't even considered to explain what she had shared with Jadah. She had just crossed her fingers and signed it.

This morning she'd been in more meetings, talking to yet another tape recorder and Simmons. She had gotten a to-do list about everything that had been taken care of and anything she still had to do or sign. Call her bank to get a new account, have her picture taken for a new ID and driver license. All her USAF IDs and clearances needed to be resurrected as well, but the Air Force would take care of that.

Oh, and she had to find a new house.

But now she was in her lab. Her to-go place. Her office, her 'sandbox' as the colonel once called it.

She recognized all her equipment. Sure, others had worked in here while she'd been gone, but basically it was still her lab, right? Should be. Her computers, her work counter, her instruments...

The changes were very subtle.

The coffee mug on the counter, with 'I don't do Mondays' printed on its front, wasn't hers and someone had put a sad-looking plant in a corner, under an infrared lamp to keep it alive. Sam's heart ached for the poor creature. It needed sunlight and rain and good soil.

Had it always been this dark down here? Had the air always been this stale?

_It's not stale, you're just imagining that. The air circulation and conditioning down here is perfectly balanced. You just have to get used to it again_, she thought.

"Major Carter," a voice from behind her startled her and she quickly turned to face a woman in a lab coat. "I was told you are back." The scientist came forward, holding out her hand and Sam took it. "I'm Doctor Peters."

"Hi." Sam plastered a smile on her face. "I was just..."

"That's okay. This has been your office, your lab. I'm going to clear it if you want it back," Peters said, returning Sam's forced smile with one of her own. Only hers seemed genuine. "I'm new. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I'm working here now. Wow. I mean... this is the real deal." Peter's eyes sparkled with open amazement.

"I know what you mean. When I got assigned to the SGC I pinched myself for a week," Sam replied on auto pilot, making small talk.

"Yeah. I'm coming from Area 51, which is cool because we get a lot of the stuff you find to analyze. But working here is like being in the front row, getting my hands on new technologies before anyone else." Peters moved to a shelf with the espresso machine.

_Not my coffee maker_, Sam thought.

"Coffee?"

"Ah, no, thanks. I was just..." Sam wasn't sure what exactly she'd been doing. Wandering around? Trying to settle back in? She didn't even know where to start. She didn't even have a lab anymore. "I have a lot of catching up to do. I missed seven months of... everything."

Peters nodded, her short straight ponytail bouncing with the movement. "I get that. Let me know if you need me to move out or if they are going to give you a new lab."

"Right. I'll..." She retreated back into the corridor. "Nice to meet you, Doctor Peters."

"Lyn," the other woman called after her as Sam fled down the hallway.

Her feet carried her to the infirmary where she wanted to check on Teal'c.

She ran into Janet who was just exiting her office. The SGC's CMO greeted Sam with a warm smile and a quick hug. She felt better immediately.

"I was going to grab some coffee. Want to join me? Teal'c has just gone through a row of tests. He needs rest," Janet said, already pulling Sam with her.

Before they left she called out for Doctor Brightman in the other room to check on Teal'c's vitals in half an hour.

"How is he?" Sam asked.

"Not happy." Janet rolled her eyes. "But his condition is still stable. And he agreed to stay in the infirmary for additional testing with the drug. We are giving him antibiotics and additional vitamin supplements. It's a shot in the dark, though. His body won't develop an immune system on its own. Doctor Brightman and I are going to work on modifying a new medication that was supposed to be for HIV patients, but never made it onto the market because it's too aggressive. We might be able to combine it with your drug. But it's all very hypothetical at the moment. If Teal'c's vitals go downhill he'll need a new symbiote."

"Hammond told us that Bra'tac offered to find a one, but Teal'c refused."

"He said he will never carry a symbiote again as long as there is any chance of making this drug work. We'll see. As for good news – Sina and Dolmakor are very optimistic regarding the drug."

Sina and Dolmakor were two Tok'ra scientists who had agreed to work on the symbiote replacement drug with them. They had arrived yesterday while Sam had been stuck in the non-interrogations.

"Your drug has a lot of potential, Sam. If the Tok'ra can help, this could be the ultimate breakthrough for the Jaffa to gain freedom from their dependency on symbiotes. We need a team out there collecting more soil and plant samples from the area where you created the drug. Your notes about the ingredients and how to put it together were extremely helpful."

"Some of those plants you'll find on Earth, but not all of them," Sam said. "The black roots of the fern, for example. And the silver sage I used is different from ours. And their soil has this high concentration of naquadah. If Ba'th authorities let us set up a plantation..."

"That would be perfect," Janet said. "In the meantime we'll experiment further on what we have."

"I'd love to help work on this."

"By all means, you're on board! I was going to ask you for help anyway. But you just got back and you need to settle in and get through a lot of red tape."

They stopped at the elevator and Sam watched Janet slide her card through the access panel by the door. She only had a guest card at the moment. They all had. SG-1's ID codes were still pending.

"The Air Force does a lot of the red tape untangling for us. We can't do anything but wait until they have put us back into the system. We're all still MIA, officially," Sam said as they stepped into the car a moment later.

Janet pushed the buttons for the right level. "They better hurry. You've been back for three days now."

"Yeah. The NID has issues because the memory stamps can't be removed," Sam said.

Janet blew out an annoyed breath. "They can't be removed because the risk of causing actual brain damage is too high. What they put into your brains resembles small nanites which are protected by minuscule force fields." Of course they had already gone through all this in the latest briefing. Janet sighed. "It's a bit similar to what Nirti put into Cassie's head. These things have rooted themselves so deeply into your brains that I wouldn't even know how to remove them. I don't even know what they do or if they are even doing anything now. They don't interfere with any brain functions and whatever caused the memory override is apparently gone. All the scans turned out negative, there is nothing wrong with you guys."

"But we do have something alien in our brains that makes the suits nervous," Sam bottom lined it.

"Maybe it'll go away on its own. I'll just have to keep monitoring it."

The commissary was almost empty when they arrived there. Once they had their coffee they settled at a table in the back of the room. Janet put cream and sugar into her coffee while Sam sipped hers black. Grimacing she reached for the cream and poured some in. She had mourned the lack of coffee on Ba'th, but now she wished she'd chosen tea instead.

Janet gave her an intent look. "Sam? Are you okay?"

She took another sip of her coffee and put it back down. "Yeah. It's just... There's someone else working in my lab," she blurted out and immediately bit her lip.

"I know. But they'll sort it out."

"No, it's okay. I know the SOP for this. We were gone seven months and there was no way of knowing if we were still alive. I don't have a house anymore either. They paid the landlord and he re-rented it. All my stuff is in storage." Sam let out a bitter snort. "It's so sad, really."

"Honey, it's not sad. It's wonderful to have you back. All of you. The SGC wasn't the same without you guys," Janet said firmly. "You have no idea how much you were missed."

Sam shook her head. "No, you don't understand. I meant... how can it be that I'm so shocked about the fact that someone else is in my lab while I don't even care about not having a house anymore? What does that say about my life here? About my priorities?" Suddenly angry she ground out,"The colonel was right when he said I have no life."

"The SGC has always been your home away from home. And you've spent a lot of time over at my place on the weekends to be with Cass. There's nothing bad or wasted about that. Cass missed you terribly, Sam." Janet reached across the table and took her hand in both of hers. "_We_ missed you, hon. The chessboard is still as you left it the last time you were with us. We still have blue jell-o in our fridge and no one touched the hot chocolate capsules for the coffee maker you like so much."

Sam closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the warmth of the touch and the truth of the words. She covered Janet's hands with her other one. "Thank you. I missed Cass, too. And you."

She hadn't even realized how much she'd missed Janet. And Cassandra – once her memories had come back. Not until now. It was funny how things sometimes worked. She could measure how much she needed them in her life by the way her anxiety level suddenly dropped.

"It'll take some time to settle in again. As soon as they cleared you as being officially back, I want you to come and stay with us. Until you have a new place."

"Janet, I can't..."

"Please. We've been friends for a very long time. And if you want to, you're welcome to feel at home at my place just like Daniel used to be at home at the colonel's." Janet winked and Sam swallowed a sudden lump in her throat.

"I would like that, yes," she whispered, feeling less out of place. A little less lost.

"I have the weekend off. We can have a pajama party, eat popcorn and watch movies."

"Have wine," Sam said. She remembered lots of evenings spent like that now.

"And something with bacon for breakfast," Janet added.

"Oh, yeah."

"And then I'd love to hear all about that planet you were stuck on for so long."

After a moment Sam regretfully pulled her hands out of Janet's and picked up her coffee. It didn't actually taste _that_ bad. "There are worse places to be stuck," she said thoughtfully. "I wish I could have taken pictures. Maybe I can snap some when I go back to meet with the authorities. Though that'll be in Madinah and not the place where I lived."

She wondered how Jadah was. She wished she'd been able to see her again before they left. To make sure her old mentor was really all right. She had to find a way to visit her once she returned. And Björk. She wanted to see him again, too.

Sam and Janet were drawn out of their companionable silence when the doors opened and Daniel entered, holding mini-him by the hand. They looked around, spotted them and Daniel nudged Danny in their direction.

"Look who's here. Sam and Doc Janet. Do you want to say hi?"

Danny nodded, let go of Daniel's hand and trotted over. "Hi Sam, hi Janet." He climbed the chair Janet pulled out for him and sat there, swinging his legs.

Daniel went to the counter to get dinner.

"Hi, Danny. Are you hungry?" Janet asked.

"Noooo," Danny drawled.

"Awww, come on. They have mac and cheese. And broccoli casserole," Sam coaxed and had to laugh at the doubtful look on Danny's face. "Okay, maybe broccoli isn't exactly yummy."

"I don't like what they have here," Danny said, sounding more sad than whiny. "It all tastes the same."

Sam exchanged a worried look with Janet. She knew the kid wasn't eating and he wasn't sleeping well either. This morning Daniel had told them Danny had tossed and turned all night and woken up several times.

He probably missed his little friend, Mania. And, like all of them, the colonel had been in meetings and hearings most of the time since they'd been back.

"It's just for a couple of days, Danny. You won't be stuck in here forever," Janet said cheerfully. "But you have to eat, sweetie."

Danny nodded and stared at the table top.

"I'm sure the colonel is already working on getting you out of here and home," Sam added, then winced. The colonel didn't have a house anymore either. Well, he had, but it was occupied. Poor Jonas was never going to hear the end of that.

But when it came down to it Jonas had taken care of the property, watered the plants, mowed the lawn, kept everything going. So theoretically the colonel should probably thank him. Ouch.

"I'm not going with Jack," Danny said quietly. "I'm staying with Daniel."

"You... will?" This was the first time she heard this. She had had no doubt that the little boy was going to live with the colonel once everything was sorted. It had never occurred to her that Danny would choose differently. She had wondered, briefly, how the colonel was going to balance being a dad and leading SG-1. But it had seemed a done deal that Danny was going to stay with Colonel O'Neill.

"Ah, actually, that decision hasn't been made yet." Daniel placed a tray on the table. On it was a small plate of mac and cheese and another one with some green glob. Probably the broccoli casserole.

"I decided," Danny said, now clearly on the defiant side. He crossed his arms over his chest and stuck out his bottom lip.

Daniel put the mac and cheese in front of him. "Okay. Why don't you have some dinner. This is great. It's macaroni and cheese and you can have ketchup with it if you want."

Danny eyed the food and shook his head. "No, thank you."

Daniel pierced some of it on a fork and blew over it, then held it out to Danny. "Just one bite? For me?"

"It tastes awful," Danny said gloomily.

Sam felt sorry for Daniel. She knew he had tried getting some food into the boy for the last three days. She had tried, too. The kid would eat a bite here and there, but only reluctantly. At least he liked the orange juice and milk they kept offering him so he wasn't in immediate danger of becoming dehydrated.

"It's not awful, it's really good." Daniel shoved the fork into his own mouth and rolled his eyes. "Mmmmh, great. You should really try it." He chewed, swallowed and pulled a face. "Okay. This IS awful."

Janet snorted. "You're not helpful, Daniel."

"Neither is trying to poison little kids," Daniel muttered. He eyeballed the green glob. "What about the broccoli, Danny? Want to try that?"

Danny shook his head. "Noooo."

Janet snapped her fingers. "I have an idea. Why don't you tell me what you WANT to eat, Danny? And I promise to get it for you on my way to work tomorrow? But you have to promise me to eat it."

Daniel frowned. "Is spoiling him helpful?"

Janet gave him the patented Doctor-knows-best glare. "If he doesn't start eating properly soon, he'll end up on an IV. Do you want that?"

"Um, no, of course not."

"And you said it yourself, this is awful. If you don't want to eat it, why should he want to eat it?" Addressing Danny again, Janet asked, "So, what do you want, honey?"

Danny flirted one shoulder. "I'm just never hungry anymore."

"Not at all? What if you could choose from any food you like?" Sam asked.

"I dunno," he whispered, ducking his head.

Daniel put the fork down and got up. "That's it. I'll get Jack."

"He's in a hearing," Sam cautioned.

Simmons had showed up at the SGC again today and announced there would be another hearing to determine whether or not SG-1 was still compromised by the memory stamps or not. Hammond had objected, but the NID had gotten clearance from the president to proceed.

"Great. He's been unavailable all day. This is an emergency. Janet? Can you call him out of a hearing for this?" Daniel asked, half in jest. He looked desperate.

She gave him a wide grin. "You bet I can."

Sam and Daniel watched as she got up and hurried to the wall phone. She called Walter, telling him Colonel O'Neill was needed at the commissary ASAP.

"He'll be here in a moment," Janet said satisfied when she returned to their table. Then she stopped short. "Where's Danny?"

Sam and Daniel turned to stare at the empty chair where Danny had been seated just a moment ago.

Daniel buried his head in his hands and groaned. "Great. Now I lost him."

**VI**

Teal'c removed the thermometer from his mouth and read the numbers. His fever had not dropped. But it had also not gotten worse. They had taken his temperature with an ear thermometer already. He was not sure what difference there was in measuring his body temperature orally. He knew, however, that he would refuse to have his temperature taken rectally.

Doctor Brightman stopped reading the monitor data by his bed and took the thermometer from him. "Still a fever," she confirmed what he already knew. "But it's not climbing."

"My body temperature has not changed dramatically over the last three days," Teal'c said. "There is no need to confine me to this bed. I was not bed bound on the planet. My condition has not changed."

"You agreed to work with us on this, Teal'c."

"I did agree to the tests. Not to be confined to the infirmary," he corrected her statement.

"You need to rest. You have been through a lot. Your body needs recharging in a different way than it was used to." She was not backing down, but after a moment of tense silence she said, "Give it another day or two, Teal'c, please. It's easier to monitor your vitals from here. If there is no change for the better over the next two days, we can at least rule out the use of antibiotics as an addition to the drug. And hopefully the Tok'ra will have come up with something by then."

He laid back on his pillow. "Very well. Two days."

Once Brightman had left, Teal'c eyed the untouched cups of blue jell-o on his nightstand – a get-well-gift from O'Neill – and the empty cookie bag – a get-well-gift from MajorCarter. He was not hungry now. And he had no interest in watching any of the movies on the small player O'Neill had provided him with.

He was tired of all the cables and the IV line he was hooked to, tired of lying around doing nothing. They kept reading his monitors and drawing blood. He had never been subjected to such a long stay in the infirmary. It was annoying. He would gladly endure the pain and dizziness that came with not carrying a symbiote for as long as it took to test the drug and change it until it worked properly. But he would surely lose his mind if he was supposed to stay in bed for a long period of time.

The door to his room opened slowly, but he could not see anyone entering.

He watched as the door was closed as quietly as it had been opened.

Teal'c raised his head to change his angle of view and smiled at his visitor. "DannyJackson."

"Are you napping?"

"I am not."

"Good. Daniel says not to come in when you're napping." Danny had reached the bed now and looked up at Teal'c with solemn eyes.

"I am always pleased to see you, young Danny."

Danny bit his bottom lip and leaned forward, placing his hands on the bed sheet. "Can I stay with you for a while, Teal'c?"

"Did you bring a game?" Yesterday they had played memory.

"Uh, no." Danny had not seemed too interested in the memory, but it had passed the time and Teal'c would have liked to try another game. But the little boy said. "I don't feel like playing." He patted the bed sheets. "Maybe I'm sick. Like you."

"Do you not feel well?"

Danny shrugged. "I dunno."

Teal'c reached for him and helped him climb the bed. Immediately the little boy slipped under the blanket and snuggled against him, careful not to tangle himself in the EKG cables.

Teal'c placed a hand on Danny's brow. It did not feel warm. "Are you in any pain?"

"No." After a pause he said, "Doc Janet said I'm very healthy. She checked all my insides out. Daniel said I was brave. Even when she stuck the needle in my arm. I didn't cry."

"You are very brave. I am sure O'Neill thinks so, too." There was no reply. Teal'c rubbed a tense shoulder. "Do you still not speak to O'Neill?"

Danny burrowed deeper into the nest of blanket until only a tuft of soft blond hair peeked out.

"He had no choice, DannyJackson." Teal'c was saddened by the little one's pain, but he was not sure how to comfort the boy. He could not give him what he wanted and he could not find O'Neill guilty for his actions.

"He promised," Danny whispered. "No one gets left behind. Not ever."

"She was not left behind. Ba'th is her home," Teal'c said gently.

"But she was my bestest friend and she wanted to come."

"Her mother would have been very sad. And her brothers. This is not her world, DannyJackson. She would have become homesick. You would not want to be taken away from O'Neill by force, would you?"

"You had to leave your family and you founded a new one. With us," the boy pointed out.

"That is true. But a part of me will always mourn the fact that I could not see my son grow up and be a big part of his life."

DannyJackson did not answer and Teal'c stroked his hand up and down the small back.

The door to his room opened again and O'Neill entered, carrying a chocolate muffin on a plate. "Hey, T. Any chance of Danny being here?" He spotted the lump under the blanket and was about to speak again, but Teal'c put a finger to his lips and said, "I have not seen DannyJackson."

O'Neill raised his left eyebrow, but decided to play along. "I got him this..." He held up the plate with the chocolate muffin. "The doc is worried because he's not eating. Daniel tried, Carter tried... they wanted me to give it a go. I told them it's a bad idea. And I was right. He took off from the commissary and left all his yummy vegetables behind as soon as he knew I was on my way."

Ignoring O'Neill's troubles for the moment, Teal'c addressed more pressing matters, "Why do you bring me all this wobble jelly if the commissary is serving chocolate cake?"

O'Neill eyed the blue jell-o cups. "I thought you like that stuff."

"It is MajorCarter who prefers jell-o over real food."

"Right. You want this? Since the kid isn't here and probably wouldn't eat it anyway because it's coming from me..." O'Neill placed the plate next to the jell-o and dropped in the visitor chair by the bed.

He looked tired and just as sad as the child.

"I screwed up, T." O'Neill said, his eyes fixated on the outlines of Danny's curled back.

"You had no choice. Mania had to return to her family."

"I didn't give them a chance to say good-bye. I just took her and left. I guess that's why he's so mad. I thought it would be easier that way."

"It would not have been easier the other way."

"I should have taken him with me when I took her home."

"Perhaps. But I still believe it would not have made saying good-bye less painful."

O'Neill continued quietly. "And ever since we got back I have hardly seen him. Had no chance to really talk to him. Nothing I can do about that, but I miss my little guy. And he won't even allow me to tuck him in at night."

"He will forgive you, O'Neill."

"He wants to move in with Daniel once they let us out of here," O'Neill said. His eyes never left the spot where Danny had burrowed under the blankets. "That really stings."

Teal'c knew the hurt in his friend's voice was no ploy to guilt-trip the child into leaving his cover, but he hoped that Danny would have a change of heart. For his own sake as much as for the colonel's.

Perhaps...

"I am under the impression you and DanielJackson are going to spend a lot of your time together."

"That's gonna be tough. We can probably only see each other when Danny is napping," O'Neill said, rolling his eyes.

"Perhaps DannyJackson should consider entirely different living arrangements for himself if he is not ready to forgive you yet. If your betrayal of his trust runs this deep."

"Yeah, well, I bet there isn't a single person on this base who's met him that wouldn't want to keep him. He's just that kind of kid you want to take home and spoil a little. He'd have them all eating out of his hands."

"It should not be someone close to you," Teal'c advised. "Seeing you might upset him too much." Underneath the blankets the little one curled into himself even more and Teal'c felt the tremors of silent sobs under the palm of his hand resting on DannyJackson's back.

O'Neill shook his head. "It's his choice of course. If he hates me this much I can't force him to change his mind. But I told him I won't ever leave him and that's a promise I intend to keep one way or another. Daniel is as far away from me as I'll let him go without a fight. Who knows, someday he might find it in him to forgive me." He stood and stretched his back. "I'm off to find Jonas. I haven't needled him about living at MY house for almost..." He peered at his watch, "...two hours."

DannyJackson needed exactly as much time to make up his mind as it took O'Neill to reach the door and put his hand on the handle.

"Jack! Jack, wait!" In his haste to untangle himself from his cocoon of blankets he almost fell out of bed. Teal'c caught him in time and lowered him gently to the ground.

O'Neill spun around and threw his hands into the air as if a weapon was aimed at him. "Whoa! Danny-boy! Did you just beam in here?"

"Noooo, I was hiding under the blankets," DannyJackson said, sniffling a little. "I heard you and Teal'c talk 'bout me." He did not run to hug the colonel's legs like Teal'c had seen him do so often when they'd been on the planet. Instead Danny remained close to the bed, one hand curled around a corner of Teal'c's blanket.

"All of it?" O'Neill looked shocked and embarrassed. "Even the part where I said I'd give you my yo-yo if you'd just stop being mad at me?"

"You didn't say that," the child replied, puzzled.

O'Neill winced. "Okay, no, I didn't. But I would. If it helps."

"I don't want your yo-yo, Jack," DannyJackson said and began to cry. Teal'c suspected those tears had been suppressed for a while now and needed to be shed.

O'Neill opened his arms and as if he had just been waiting for that, Danny let go of the blanket and ran. He leaped and threw himself at his surrogate father who caught him and held onto him as if his life depended on it.

And maybe it did.

Teal'c had rarely ever met two people who were more deeply connected than O'Neill and DanielJackson. He had seen that complicated friendship grow into even more complicated love over the years. He had always hoped both men would some day see beyond their differences and find what was so obviously there.

What had happened on the planet where they smoked those hallucinogenic drugs had probably been too much too soon. But he had never doubted that it would have happened either way at some point. Yet, it had driven them further apart instead of bringing them closer together. But apparently it had not changed the way they felt for each other.

Ever since DanielJackson had ascended O'Neill walked through a valley of darkness. He had functioned well as a soldier and marched on relentlessly in his fight against the Goa'uld. But the man Teal'c knew as his friend had been frozen inside to the point where nothing or no one had been able to reach him.

No one but this child who was actually a part of DanielJackson.

Teal'c had not been there when Danny had fallen from the sky. But he had immediately seen the change in O'Neill once he had joined them. And while Teal'c knew that O'Neill had only fully healed after Daniel's descension, he was convinced that it had been Danny who had broken the shell around O'Neill's heart and thawed the ice, not the memory stamp or the removal from his home world.

Teal'c did not know for sure because Jack O'Neill was a very private man, but having this boy in his life now had probably closed a much older but equally deep wound. No one probably ever fully recovered from the loss of a beloved child, but maybe O'Neill had come as close as one could possibly get.


	4. Chapter 4

**VII**

"Sometimes we can't change the way things are," Jack said later, after all the tears had been cried and Danny had taken a nap. He'd probably be awake most of the night now, but Jack didn't mind entertaining his little fella. He was way to relieved to be back in his good book.

"I thought you could."

There was no defense mechanism to shield him from those quietly spoken words. It brought back a memory Jack could have done without. When Daniel had been presumed dead while trapped on Nem's planet they had gone to sort out his apartment and Carter had found his journal and read from it.

_'Sha're is gone, Jack says we'll find her. If anyone can, he can.' _

He knew Daniel had never believed or felt that Sha're's death was Jack's fault. He had struggled with Teal'c for a while, but he'd overcome that, too. Yet, Jack had felt similar to now back then when he had seen Daniel in the infirmary after Teal'c had killed her. When he had to look him in the eye and see that bottomless grief there. And anger.

Jack knew this was a very different situation, but still...

They sat, side by side, on the bed in Jack's quarters with pillows propped up against the headboard. "I'm sorry I disappointed you. Do you believe me when I say I did what I could? That we gave Mania's family a way to help themselves. Hopefully."

"I know you did," Danny murmured after a moment of silence. Jack hated to see him like this. There was almost nothing left of the happy, energetic and curious child Danny used to be. He was like a deflated balloon.

"I'm sorry we couldn't take Mania with us," Jack said softly.

Danny shrugged. "She wouldn't have liked it here anyway."

Jack looked around the windowless room with its nice but functional furniture. There was a carpet and the bed had a pretty navy-blue comforter and several fluffy pillows. Jonas had stopped by with some stuff from Jack's place last night. The playstation, some DVDs, clothes. The boxes were still sitting on the desk, unopened.

He looked at his small sidekick who had his head down and his arms tightly wrapped around himself. A miniature version of the self hug Jack knew so well from the early days of SG-1. A habit he didn't want to see resurfacing in this little one.

"You don't like it here much either, huh?"

Danny shook his head.

"No," Jack said quietly, "neither do I."

The kid tilted his head to peer up at him. "Really?"

"Hey, I'm the one who didn't want to go home in the first place, remember?"

"But you had to. 'Cause Teal'c is sick and 'cause you have to save the world and stuff."

"I know."

"I forgot what it's like here," Danny said after another moment of quiet. "I didn't know it was so... dark. There are no colors and no windows and there are lots of people with guns and the food tastes yucky." He bit his lip and ducked his head again.

"It's just until we are cleared to leave, kiddo. You'll like my place. I have a yard and we can drive up into the woods and go camping. Do you remember the Springs at all?"

"No," Danny said, then corrected that statement. "I remember places. Like Starbucks. I used to love Starbucks. And I remember the library. I used to go there sometimes. But not much else of the city. Is it big? Is it like Ba'th Town?"

"Not... exactly like Ba'th Town. There's no beach, for starters. And it's bigger." His eye caught the laptop sitting on his desk. "I could show you pictures. On the internet."

"Daniel showed me the internet," Danny said halfheartedly. "He showed me pictures and videos of Egypt and the camels. And pictures of what it looks like outside the mountain. I watched a movie, too. Aladdin." He perked up at that and let go of the self hug. Holding his arms wide apart to indicate something huge, he went on, "There was a blue genie in it that was THIS BIG. I liked the genie. He was funny. And he lived in a lamp. Daniel says that Aladdin is a fairy tale of the Arabian Nights. He's going to read the original story to me soon."

"In Arabic?" Jack asked.

"His book is in Arabic, but he'll translate it for me. Daniel knows LOTS of languages. I used to know all of them, too, but I forgot when the Oma-angel changed me."

"You could re-learn some of them," Jack suggested.

"First I wanna learn how to read and write again. Then I can read all the books in Daniel-Jonas office."

Fraiser and Daniel had kept Jack in the loop about the tests they had done with Danny so far. Oma had saved the little guy and Jack would be forever grateful for that. Temporarily losing the ability to read and write was a small price to pay for being alive, but to Jack it still felt like punishment. He was glad that Danny himself didn't seem to mind having to re-learn. And according to Fraiser his IQ was still through the roof so he'd soak up knowledge like a sponge.

"Jack?"

"Danny?"

"When can we go outside? Is it my fault they won't let us leave? Because I fell from the sky?" Danny leaned against him. His thumb crept to his mouth, but just before it wandered in he suddenly withdrew his hand and quickly shoved it under his butt. "Doc Janet says I'll get crooked teeth from sucking my thumb. And no one wants crooked teeth."

"Yeah," Jack sighed, "Doc Janet sure knows how to spoil all the fun, huh? She means well, though. And she's usually right about all things medical." Even though he was sure Danny would grow out of it on his own long before his teeth turned into Unas teeth. He pulled the 'offending' hand out from under Danny and took it in both of his. "It's not your fault we're still stuck here. SG-1 has been missing for a very long time and it's complicated. There are a lot of boring things that need to be done and it'll take a while, that's all."

"How long is a while?"

"Uh... I don't know. Couple of days, maybe."

Danny heaved a deep sigh. "I thought going home meant we'd all be happy, but no one's happy. Teal'c is still sick and it's all dull and gray and boring here. I don't wanna watch any more movies or look at pictures. I don't want any more games and color books. I want to go outside and play. And I want Teal'c to be better so he can come and play with us."

Oy. And they had just returned three days ago.

Jack peered at his watch. "The Tok'ra are working on making Teal'c better. Give it some time and maybe they'll have good news for us soon."

"Sam's dad is a Tok'ra," Danny said thoughtfully. "Are they doctors?"

"They're scientists," Jack replied vaguely. "They're very smart."

"And sometimes their eyes glow."

"Ye-ah."

"How do they make their eyes glow, Jack?"

Was there some place he could file a complaint about Oma? If she had to mess with the kid's brain, why couldn't she make a clean sweep? This muddiness of fragmental knowledge was so going to give Jack lots of headaches in the future. He was glad to have Daniel on board for this particular part of parenting. Daniel, however, wasn't here right now.

"The Tok'ra are from another planet. That means they are a bit different," Jack said carefully.

"How come Sam can't make her eyes glow if her dad's a Tok'ra?"

"Jacob became a Tok'ra by choice. He wasn't always one."

"Oh! And they made it so that he can make his eyes glow, too. So he won't feel left out. That's nice of them, isn't it?"

"Yeah. You got it." As much as Jack was glad to see a bit of Danny's curiosity return, he'd rather not continue down this road. He needed a diversion plan, and fast. "Tell you what, buddy? I'm going to make a couple of phone calls and we'll go out to play tomorrow."

Danny flipped over on his knees and bounced on the bed. "We will?!"

"Yep. We can run around the woods and get some fresh air. There's a catch, though. You need a lot of energy to run around in the woods... so you have to eat at least one decent meal between now and tomorrow morning."

Danny considered this for about a second, then jumped off the bed, pulling at Jack's hand. "Doc Janet said she'll get me anything I want 'cause the commissary food is so yucky. I remember pizza! I love pizza!"

Jack stood and made Danny ride piggyback. "I have a better idea. Let's find Walter. I bet you can charm him into getting pizza for all of us."

ooo

"You don't have clearance to leave the mountain," Daniel repeated patiently.

"Yeah, and when has something insignificant like that ever stopped us from doing anything?" Jack rummaged through the box of clothes. He pulled out his black leather jacket. "Here you are," he muttered and put it on the bed.

Danny who was sitting at the head of the bed, tugged at the sleeve and pulled it over to him. "Is this your jacket, Jack?"

"Yep. Jonas brought it from home."

"Is it cold outside?"

"Not cold, but not as hot as it was on Ba'th. You need a jacket, too. Or a sweatshirt." Jack turned to Daniel. "Where's that bag of clothes Walter..." The bag was dropped on the bed before he had finished the sentence. "Thank you."

Jack had no clue where the tiny t-shirts, jackets and pants Walter had left on his desk this morning had come from. He assumed Harriman had kids or nephews Danny's age. Whoever the original owner of the clothes was, Jack was grateful they had agreed to part with them. While his credit card and bank account were finally back in order, they hadn't had time to do online shopping yet.

"So how are you going to do this, Jack? Climb out the access tube?"

"Now, that would be fun, but no. We'll take one of the other emergency exits. That's going to take us right where we want to be."

"There are guards," Daniel cautioned.

"I know that."

"Then, how..."

"Daniel, have a little faith. Hey, Danny, you want to go through this stuff and choose a jacket or a hoodie?" Jack pushed the bag over to the kid who dove into it immediately.

"You're counting on those guards not knowing you are supposed to stay on base for the time being. Because you used to be 2IC and no one dares to question your word," Daniel assumed.

Jack slipped into his jacket, pulled at the lapels and shrugged a couple of times until it felt familiar again. Yep, _his_. Nice. "Not exactly, nope," he said in regard to Daniel's nagging.

"Good. Because I'm pretty sure Hammond has given word to everyone about not letting us out. So unless you have those speed-me-up armbands hidden somewhere..."

Danny wrestled with a dark blue hoodie. He got stuck somewhere with his head and Daniel had to rescue him. Once the kid was free and wearing the hoodie the proper way, he climbed off the bed and started bouncing around the room like Tigger on his pogo stick.

"I get your point about having to go out," Daniel said with a glance at mini-him. "But you could take him to the gym and let him roll around on the mats or something."

"Daniel, being allowed to go out and play is the reason he's finally acting more like himself. If I was just desperate I'd make him run laps in the hallways."

"Yes. _Allowed_ being the crucial point here. Because you're not. Unless you got clearances the rest of us didn't?"

Jack caught Danny in mid bounce and settled him on his desk chair to help with his boots. "Let's just say I have connections and allies."

"Oh?" Daniel's eyebrows wandered above the rim of his glasses. The glasses Jack had kept, tucked away in his own desk all those months. They had been like a connection to Daniel. Or a reminder that Daniel was just gone, not dead. Maybe they had been a shred of hope that some day Daniel would come back and need his glasses.

Which, all things considered, was exactly what had happened.

"Yeah, oh. You coming along or what?" Jack finished tying Danny's boots.

"Actually, yes. I want to see how you're going to pull this off. You got another jacket in your box of miracles?" Daniel didn't wait for an answer and started digging through the box, coming up with a gray fleece jacket. It was a jacket from Jack's favorite hockey team, the logo embroidered on the back.

He slipped into it and, taking the kid in their middle, they left Jack's quarters.

Jack had used his strategy skills to time everything precisely.

Jonas waited by the elevator. He greeted them with a grin and handed Jack a huge brown paper bag. "Everything as ordered, sir."

He peered into the bag, found everything to his satisfaction, and nodded. "Thank you, Jonas. Let's go."

"Can I do the swiping?" Danny asked and was delighted when Jonas handed him his card. He whipped it through the scanner like a pro and a moment later they were in the elevator, going up.

"What's in the bag?" Daniel asked.

"Radio and provisions," Jonas provided readily. "Sam is on guard. If anyone is looking for you she'll contact me immediately. Hopefully that'll give us enough time to return. Of course if anyone questions my authority in the first place, we're all screwed."

"You're doing fine," Jack assured him brightly.

"Yeah. Right. I'm not sure why exactly I let you talk me into this in the first place. I must have lost my mind."

"C'mon, Jonas, be a little adventurous. You're a brave man. Hey, when you wash my truck, do you remember to wax it twice?"

Jonas blinked. "Uh, I usually take it to a car-wash..."

Jack was speechless upon this abuse of his truck. He used to spend hours washing and waxing it, polishing all the chrome parts and cleaning it out. His truck was his baby, his precious. Well, okay, mostly he just found it relaxing to lose himself in the mindless task of cleaning. It cleared his head and grounded him.

"Ouch," Daniel winced. "Bad, very bad."

Jonas threw up his hands. "It's a CAR. Well, a truck. I don't see any reason to spend my time washing and waxing it by hand."

"You're dead now," Daniel said gloomily.

Jack took a deep breath and patted Jonas' shoulder. "That's fine. Toldya we'd be even and I'd stop pestering you. IF you manage to get us to the surface and back again."

Jonas cringed, then straightened up and gave him a grim look. "I'll take you up there, even if it's the last thing I ever do. As long as it'll get you off my case about your truck and your house. In fact, I can't wait to give you back your keys, Colonel."

Jack grinned. "That's the spirit."

They switched elevators, but when they got off, instead of taking the hallway to one of the blast doors and tunnels leading to the main exit, they entered another section. The two SF on duty took one look at Jonas' ID card and let them pass without questioning when he told them he was authorized to escort Colonel O'Neill, Danny and Doctor Jackson on a short walk topside.

They continued through another dark corridor and a stairwell until they reached the heavy door to the surface. It was one of the three emergency exits of Cheyenne Mountain. Jack, being 2IC of Stargate Command – at least he had used to be until he'd gone MIA on Ba'th - knew all the ins and outs of the base. This particular exit was close to the access tube and would take them to a clearing in the wilderness of Cheyenne Mountain. From the outside it appeared to be a transformer building; gray brick building with blue steel door.

Jonas let Danny do the 'swiping' again and Daniel pushed the door open. "I'd love to see the brass in DC faint if they found out a four year old opens the doors of the USA's most highly secured military base."

They stepped outside and into a mild fall day. Jonas had checked the weather channel for them to make sure it wasn't raining.

They were greeted by blue skies and trees that had just started to change colors. A paved road led away from their exit, but they chose to go the other direction on a small well-trodden path.

Jack and Daniel took Danny's hands and swung him up between them as they walked deeper into the woods. Danny pulled at their arms to make them go faster. With every up-swing he chortled, which was the best sound in the world. Jack had missed hearing it over the last couple of days.

They entered a small clearing enclosed by a mix of aspen trees, firs, and scrubs.

Danny skipped away to peek under a bush. Daniel followed him and together they discovered a ladybug on a leaf, a woodpecker's hole up in a tree and a patch of wild flowers. Jack and Jonas were informed of every new find very loudly and in detail.

Once they had found a nice spot Jack pulled a blanket from the brown bag and spread it on the forest ground. Next he retrieved a ball not unlike the one he'd had on Ba'th. However, this one was red and brand new. Jonas had just bought it last night.

"Ball! We get to play ball!" Danny hadn't participated in any of the games with the older kids on Ba'th, but he had loved watching from the sidelines so Jack assumed he'd be happy to play in a less rough and competitive manner.

This place wasn't ideal for playing for real; the ground was uneven and small scrub grew everywhere. But Danny didn't care about goals or rules anyway. He just ran after the ball and kicked it, then wanted Jack to kick it "real hard, Jack!" so he could run after it again to kick or throw it back. The little guy insisted Daniel and Jonas join in and, of course, neither of them could resist those sparkling baby blues. Soon the clearing was ringing with laughter and cheers.

At least for the moment the sad and subdued kid was gone and the star child was back in full force, totally enjoying the moment and the freedom of just being outside and seeing the sun.

Jack loved it.

Danny picked up the ball and ran with it, yelling at the top of his lungs, "You can't catch me, you can't!" as Daniel chased after him, pretending to be a roaring Unas with an appetite for little kids.

"Jaaack, Jaaack, rescue me, rescue me!" Danny squealed and threw the ball. Jack caught it and, with a well aimed shot, hit Daniel square in the chest. "Take that, Chaka!"

"I'm dooown," Daniel moaned and fell like a tree.

Danny stopped in mid-run, almost toppled over, spun around and attacked mercilessly. He climbed on top of Daniel and raised his arms in a victory pose. "I won!"

"You had help," Daniel groaned. "That's not fair."

"Is too. I'm smaller. I need help." Danny leaned forward and patted Daniel's cheeks. "Don't worry, we won't tell anyone that you lost."

"Ow, thank you." Daniel played the wounded Unas for another second, then he grabbed the kid and started tickling until Danny was begging for mercy.

Jack loved that, too. If he could just stand here and watch them for the rest of the day, he'd be a happy man.

"He's a fun kid," Jonas said.

"Yeah, he is."

"Are you getting permanent custody?"

"It's what I applied for." It was one of the first things he had requested. The most pressing matter on his mind ever since they'd returned home. He was still waiting for the approval and with every day that passed he was getting a little more anxious.

Danny didn't have any legal parents or family that would want to claim him. He wasn't an alien threat either. He was a little boy who had fallen from the sky and needed a home. Jack had taken care of Danny from the start. He had everything the kid needed. It was as simple as that in his book.

And, thanks to Jonas, he even had a home for himself and Danny once everything was sorted out.

Apparently it wasn't quite that simple for his superiors.

Jonas nodded. "Good luck. If you want me to prepare the spare room... it could use some paint and new furniture if you are going to turn it into Danny's room."

"I'm hoping we won't be stuck at the mountain much longer," Jack replied. "And I'd like him to choose the colors and all that."

"We could show him stuff on the internet. Ikea or whatever."

"Yeah, I think he'd like to help set up his room. Meaning, he's gonna make a fine mess in his attempt to 'help'."

"But it'll help him to settle in. From what I heard about your life on Ba'th things were a lot different there," Jonas said.

"Yeah. Listen..." Jack decided it was time to stop being a jerk. "As much as I hate to admit it, you're most likely the reason I actually still have a house. So... thanks for taking care of it. I appreciate that."

"You're welcome," Jonas smirked. "It's a great place. I kinda hate having to move out again."

"I'm sure Hammond won't make you move back to base. You'll find a new place. One where you can plant all the mulberries you like."

"Jack!" A Danny-sized limpet attached himself to his legs.

"Hey, buddy. How'd you escape the hideous monster?"

"We negotiated peace. And we're hungry," Danny giggled and tugged at Jack's pants. "What else is in your bag?"

"Hmmm... who knows. Go, find out."

"Coffee?" Daniel asked hopefully when they all settled on the blanket and watched Danny unpacking. He retrieved a thermos, three plastic cups, a straw, several wrapped sandwiches and a bottle of orange juice.

"Nice!" Jack opened the juice for Danny and put the straw in it.

Daniel poured coffee for the rest of them and everyone grabbed a sandwich.

"Can we 'splore the forest, Jack?" Danny asked when he was done wolfing down half of his bread.

"I think we have to go back in a bit," Jack said, receiving an affirmative nod from Jonas. "But maybe we can come up here again tomorrow and take a longer walk."

Danny's face fell instantly, as if the sun was covered by a sudden dark cloud. "Do we haveta go back inside? Can't we stay here? We could tell them where to find us if they need you?"

Jack sighed. "I wish we could, kiddo, but we have to follow the rules. Nothing I can do about that, sorry."

"We never had to follow so many rules on Ba'th," Danny pointed out with a pout.

"You'll get used to it," Daniel said. "It's just very different, that's all."

"It's boring," Danny insisted. "Being inside is boring. It feels like being buried."

"Under a ton of rocks," Jack agreed, but added, "For now we don't have a choice, though. And all the arguing in the world won't change that."

"I wasn't gonna argue."

"Sure you were. You were just warming up for the big big argument."

"Was not."

"Were, too."

"No-oh-oh," Danny huffed and crossed his arms.

Daniel held up a small paper bag. "Cookies anyone?"

At least for the moment it saved the day.

Before Danny could start into round two about going back inside, the radio crackled. "Jonas, this is Sam, do you read?"

Jonas quickly picked it up. "Yep, What's up?"

"I'm on my way to Hammond. He just called... he's looking for the colonel. I'll try stalling him, but you should get down here ASAP."

"Understood. We're on our way, Jonas out."

They quickly stuffed everything into the bag and Daniel went to collect the ball. Danny looked from Jack to Jonas with wide eyes. "Are we in trouble now?"

"Not you," Jonas reassured him. "You haven't done anything wrong."

"And if we hurry and are down there before Hammond goes to check the security cams neither will we," Jack said.

The folded blanket was placed on top of everything else. Jonas carried the bag and Jack let Danny ride piggy-back.

They had just left the path and were trudging down the paved road when the radio sprang to life again. Only this time it wasn't Sam. Instead Hammond's voice spoke to them, loud and clear, and he didn't sound happy. "Mister Quinn, where are you?"

Jack cringed and Jonas looked spooked, but replied, "Uh, sir, we're just..."

"Are you still on the surface?"

"Yes, sir. Sir, I can explain... or, rather, Colonel O'Neill can explain..."

"Stay where you are. I am headed your way. Hammond out."

Into the following silence, Danny piped up, "Uh-oh."

That pretty much covered it.

ooo

General Hammond exited the blue door five minutes later, followed by a flustered looking Sam. The general appeared grim faced and not at all forgiving.

Daniel and Jonas exchanged a worried look. Jack just stood at attention, ready to have the riot act read to him. But instead of dressing down his former 2IC, Hammond turned to Jonas first. "Mister Quinn, you're dismissed for now. Please take the boy with you."

Danny shook his head and sought refuge behind Jack's legs.

"Sir..." Jack started and, at a curt nod from Hammond to be at ease, he crouched down and took Danny's hands in his. "I need you to go with Jonas, okay?"

"No."

"Danny..."

"You got into trouble 'cause of me." Danny twisted around and looked all the way up into General Hammond's stern face and Daniel couldn't help but admire the little guy for his courage. "Jack wanted me to have fun. If you haveta throw him in jail, I'll go with him."

The effect wasn't wasted on Hammond either. His face softened, his mouth twitched and he shook his head. "Don't you worry, son. No one is going to throw Jack in jail. He'll be just fine. But we have to talk about some very boring grown up things."

Danny looked thoughtful. "Like in the very looooong briefing on Ba'th?"

"Something like that, yes. I'm sure you'd rather do something more fun than sit through that again. Jonas could take you to the commissary for some ice cream."

"I have a better idea," Jonas said quickly. "I'll show you the gym. You could climb the wall bars and we can take the ball."

Danny looked indecisively at Jack who gave him an encouraging nod and a slightly forced smile. "Go, have fun. I'll pick you up when I'm done here."

Finally Danny took Jonas' hand and they disappeared through the blue door.

Daniel cleared his throat and, forestalling any reprimand coming from the general, he started talking very fast. He had learned over the years that sometimes this was a great tactic to a) get his point across or b) get his way because Jack or Hammond just wanted him to shut up. Granted, the latter was probably not true, it just felt that way sometimes.

"General, we know we weren't supposed to leave the SGC and we're very sorry, but Danny was depressed to the point where he refused to eat and we were desperate. We just wanted the kid to have some fun and we should have asked or, at least have Doctor Fraiser make Danny's well being a medical issue to get permission to go out, but we weren't going anywhere and Jonas – who isn't to blame, by the way, because he just followed Jack's orders – watched us like a hawk, so..."

"Walk with me, people," Hammond cut him off and strode down the path they had just come from.

Jack's eyebrows shot upwards and Sam bit her lip and shrugged. They trudged after the general who didn't stop until they were back in the clearing they had just left.

When Hammond faced them he still seemed angry, but Daniel had a sudden inkling that his anger was directed elsewhere. The next words out of the general's mouth confirmed that hunch. "Colonel, we will talk about your insubordination later. Actually, as things are, it's good you're up here. It makes talking off the record much easier."

_Somehow he knows about Jack and me_, Daniel thought with sudden clarity. Someone must have noticed something... but he and Jack hadn't even seen each other much over the last couple of days. It made no sense...

Jack's eyes flickered over briefly and there was a head shake so subtle that most likely no one but Daniel noticed it. It could mean; _relax, this can't be about us._ Could also mean; _we're so totally screwed._

Hammond took a deep breath."The NID, in agreement with the Joint Chiefs and the President, has just informed me that SG-1 – with exception of Doctor Jackson, but even his sudden return from ascension isn't off the table yet – is under suspicion of being compromised or at the very least susceptible to alien influences and suggestions due to a piece of unknown technology in your heads."

After a moment of stunned silence Daniel realized his jaw had hit the floor. He blurted out, "What?!" and quickly closed his mouth.

"General, Doctor Fraiser has confirmed in all her reports that the nanites in our brains are inactive," Sam said.

"Wellll," Daniel cautioned reluctantly, "of course there's always the question about whether or not they will stay inactive forever or if they could be re-activated... but obviously they malfunctioned in the first place and their only purpose was to alter your memories..."

"According to the NID we can't be sure that's their only purpose, Doctor Jackson. So until the research regarding the stamping device and all its connecting technologies is completed you will not be allowed to go back to active duty and you will not get permission to leave the SGC." Hammond gave Jack a meaningful look. "Not even to take a walk on the surface, Colonel."

Daniel said, "Okay, but isn't that a bit counterproductive? Sam is supposed to be part of the team doing that research. And what about negotiations with Ba'th authorities? I thought she was going back there to explain the results of our research to them."

Hammond nodded. "Those were my orders, yes. Unfortunately my superiors have other ideas. Apparently the implants in your heads have everyone in DC spooked. You were the SGC's flagship team which gives you certain privileges, but it also makes you very vulnerable. Basically they are afraid those nanites could be used to extract further classified information from your minds. Or that you are – consciously or not – being used as spies."

"Sir, Ba'th authorities have already extracted any knowledge and data from our minds they needed when we arrived there. It's part of the stamping process," Sam said.

"They suspect that it could be done again in the future. That the Ba'th government could somehow still download any information about future missions and whatever input you gather on other worlds," Hammond said.

"Of all the stupid things..." Jack started, but Hammond held up a hand to silence him.

"This new development does not bode well for our relationship with Ba'th authorities either."

Sam shook her head. "Sir, we will prove to them that we're in no way a threat to Earth or the SGC. And once the stamping device is dismantled there's no way..."

"Not you, Major. They want us to send Doctor Lee instead to continue your work on the stamping device."

"Oh. Okay. That's..." Sam trailed off and bit her lip, then continued hurriedly, "But... with all due respect, sir, we need that treaty with Ba'th. There is much more at stake than naquadah mining rights. Teal'c needs this symbiote replacement drug. And not just him. We're making good progress on refining it. If we can make it work we should go into mass production. We need to set up a lab on Ba'th and start growing fields of plants."

"I agree. And I was able to convince the Joint Chiefs that we shouldn't voice their concerns regarding your implants to Ba'th authorities unless there is a definite proof that those nanites are not what they appear to be."

"And how is anyone going to prove that? Or the opposite of that?" Daniel asked sharply.

Hammond shook his head. "I have no idea. And I'm not supposed to tell you this, but they wanted me to pull you off the drug project, Major. However, Doctor Fraiser insisted that your extensive knowledge of Ba'th's vegetation is essential to their work. Everyone is well aware of the magnificence this drug would have in the Jaffa's quest for freedom. It would be a powerful tool in changing the balance of power in this galaxy long term."

"Thank you, sir," Sam said.

"That still leaves SG-1 in limbo for... how long exactly?" Daniel asked.

"As long as there are nanites in our heads," Jack said flatly. "And they can't confine us to the SGC indefinitely. Where are we going, General? Area 51? Comfortable VIP suits with a grand view of the desert and bars in front of our windows?"

Hammond gave Jack a grim smile. "They haven't said, yet. But I'm not going to just sit here and let them arrest you. To that end I talked to the Tok'ra this morning and they have agreed to look into your problem. There's a chance they might find a way to remove those implants. If that happens all restrictions will be lifted and SG-1 is back in the game."

"Sweet. What are we going to do? Have our heads x-rayed again?" Jack asked.

"Not x-rayed and no MRI. Sina will return to the Tok'ra home world to get advanced equipment to scan your brains. They assured me it will have no side effects of any kind. Doctor Fraiser will be present and monitoring the examination."

"As long as Anise doesn't have any part in this." Jack shuddered visibly and despite the seriousness of the situation Daniel had to bite back a smile. Anise had once come on to Jack – Jack had told him later he'd been traumatized by the size of her boobs.

"Don't worry, she won't be involved. However," the general lowered his voice and Daniel saw how the Texas-sky blue eyes zeroed in on Jack alone, "there's more."

"More, sir?" Jack echoed.

"Oh, boy," Sam murmured.

"If the Tok'ra successfully remove the nanites from your brains and SG-1 goes back to active duty there is no way you'll get custody of the boy, Jack. This is coming straight from the higher ups. They believe that having a child to worry about will interfere with your job as leader of the SGC's premier team. Of course what they said was that it's more beneficial for Danny's well being if he grows up in a real family where at least one parent isn't at risk of getting killed out in the field."

"And if they aren't able to remove the nanites and we go to Nevada or elsewhere, I won't get custody either," Jack said slowly.

"I'm afraid that's right," Hammond replied darkly. "As a matter of fact the Air Force is already looking for a suitable placement for Danny. This is totally off the record. They weren't going to let you know until they found someone, made it legal and took the boy away."

Daniel felt like someone was pulling the rug out from under his feet. This couldn't be happening. Suddenly he was eight years old again and sitting in a social worker's office with his only suitcase at his feet and his stuffed camel clutched in both hands. The bitter salty taste of his grandfather's rejection at the back of his throat and the burn of tears stinging his eyes was like poison. The social worker promised him a family would come to adopt him, to take him home and give him everything he needed.

The family that took him home that day couldn't keep him. Neither could the family after that or the family after that...

"They can't put him through that," he ground out, barely swallowing the 'again' he wanted to add. "And there's no need either. He already has a family. Us."

Hammond sighed. "I am open for suggestions, Doctor Jackson. This is why I told you. If you can work out a solution I will do anything to make it happen. The only upside to this is that they are not considering Danny a threat or a security risk so he can live a normal life here on Earth. Of course, seeing that he has certain scattered memories from being Doctor Jackson, he still needs parents with clearance. Which may give us time to think up a solution for this mess."

Daniel shook off the image of himself in that office. No one had been there to fight for him back then. No one cared. Danny, however, had SG-1 to cover his back. "I have no nanites in my head. If I have to, I'll resign from going off world and work at the SGC."

"That's a noble thought, Doctor Jackson, but you have returned from the higher planes of existence and they are still trying to digest that, too, in Washington. Your case is even more complicated since they are not sure if you have any lingering ascended powers."

"What powers? Like controlling the elements? Going through walls? Oma took away all the knowledge, all the memories from when I was ascended. I spent months on a higher plane and have no knowledge of it at all. That's frustrating enough, isn't it? I told Simmons everything he wanted to know over and over again when he interrogated me. And even if I had any glowy magic in me I wouldn't be allowed to use it. None interference."

"Which is actually why he was sent back to the lower planes – because he broke that rule to help us. We'd probably not even be here without Daniel. He gave up his life as an ascended being for us," Sam threw in.

"Who knows, maybe I had an evil agenda by doing so," Daniel snapped.

"Daniel..." Hammond's rare use of his first name shut him up for the moment, but didn't deflate his anger. "You don't have to convince me. I'm not the enemy here."

"We know that, sir," Jack said into the ensuing silence. "And I appreciate you telling us what's going on. That said I have to inform you that whether or not the Tok'ra can remove that implant from my head, I'm going to let them take Danny away from me over my dead body. Sir."

"Somehow I knew you'd said that," Hammond replied with just the hint of a smile.

"That goes for me, too," Daniel said quietly.

"Very well. There are two scenarios I'd consider if I were you," Hammond said slowly. "If the Tok'ra are able to remove those implants you could hand in your resignation, Colonel. I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I'll be to let you go, but chances are good that once you're officially retired they'll give you custody."

"Or find another stupid reason to deny it to you just because they're mad you quit, sir," Sam pointed out.

"I don't know, Sam. If they are going to lose him anyway, they probably don't care anymore one way or the other. And they can't force Jack to stay," Daniel said.

"Unless they are going to make me an offer that'll make me change my mind," Jack added.

"Custody," Sam said.

"_That_ would be something to consider."

"And have you stopped for a moment to consider that – despite their real reasons for denying you custody for Danny – there's some truth in the reasons they use as a smokescreen? We never know if we'll return from a mission alive. In fact, every time we step through that gate, there's a high chance we won't come home," she said, her voice clipped.

"It doesn't matter," Daniel said gently. "Danny belongs to us. Even if he is forced to grow up elsewhere, deep down inside he'll always know he is in the wrong place. And if something happens to us – to any of us – he'll be heartbroken, no matter if he lives with Jack or not. But at least he'll be happy as long as he can be with us. Because it's what he wants. If we give him away – even to protect him – he's going to feel betrayed and rejected for a very long time."

Sam stared at him and Daniel saw something cross her eyes he couldn't define. Anger? Regret? Sadness? It was dark and painful and as if she realized he sensed it she closed up, guarding herself. Turning to Hammond she asked, "What's the other option, General?"

"I will deny I ever said this and I will only say it this once. If the Tok'ra can't remove those implants... you all will have to submit to whatever the NID and the Joint Chiefs decide to do with you. Unless you somehow manage to take the kid and leave through the gate. If you do that, I have to inform you that your IDC's will be locked out of the computer permanently and there will be no turning back."

"Yes, sir," Jack said simply.


	5. Chapter 5

**VIII**

SG-1 always used to hang out in Daniel's office. It had the best coffee maker, the best coffee, always a stash of cookies and they all liked the library feeling of the place. Books and artifacts, mildly organized chaos. It had a comfortable none-military vibe.

Jack's motivation for going there had always been clear and simple. Daniel was there. He'd liked hanging out with Daniel. Eating all his cookies, drinking his coffee, bickering over just about anything... sometimes he had even read his reports there while Daniel worked on some translation or whatever. Daniel had always pretended to be annoyed when Jack spread out his paperwork on the work counter, but he had never outright told him to leave.

And whenever SG-1 had issues to discuss or private team briefings, they regrouped in Daniel's office. It used to be their to-go place.

When Daniel had ascended and Jonas moved in there Jack just didn't feel like spending more time in that office than necessary. They still met there for team briefings out of old habit, but Jack had never gone there to do his paperwork or crosswords. He had tried to bug Carter for a while, but she was even more focused on her work than Daniel used to be. It just hadn't been the same.

On the day after Hammond had talked to them, around noon, when the Tok'ra had scanned the brains of two thirds of SG-1 Jack found himself in front of Jonas office... which was currently actually Jonas and Daniel's office. Jonas had gone off world with his 'new' team, SG-3 so Jack knew he wouldn't be here.

The door was open and the smell of freshly brewed coffee put an almost-smile on his face. He entered, but stopped in the doorway at the sight that met him.

In the back of Daniel's office at the only wall without bookshelves, in the shadows of a corner, was an old couch. No one really knew where it had come from. It had been in here as long as Jack could remember. Sometimes Daniel had slept on it when he pulled all-nighters. Sometimes Jack had dozed on it when he needed a power nap during long never-ending crisis-ridden times and lockdowns.

By the couch was a small table and on it Daniel had lit a white and red multi-wick candle. He was on the couch, Danny in his lap, holding a large book open. Over the soft gargling of the coffee maker Daniel's soft voice floated through the room.

"One day, Aladdin met sultan's daughter and fell in love with her. He went to the palace with gems and asked for her hand in marriage. The king agreed to this. After marriage, Aladdin showered the princess with all the riches and gave her a huge palace to live in. When the sultan died, Aladdin ruled the kingdom. He was just and kind-hearted and everybody was happy under his rule..."

Danny knuckled his eye. "If I had a lamp like Aladdin I'd make Teal'c well. Then I'd go to Ba'th and make everyone happy. But I'd want to make the genie happy too."

"I bet the genie would appreciate that," Daniel said.

"Arabic writing is so pretty." Danny's finger traced the lines of words in the book. At least Jack guessed that's what he was doing, he couldn't see it properly from where he was standing.

"It is. I'll show you how to read and write it," Daniel offered and Danny's head bopped up and down.

"The pictures are pretty too," Danny observed. "Why is the story from the Arabian Nights? At the beginning you said Aladdin lived in China."

"Originally it wasn't part of the Arabian Nights tales. It was added later to the collection, in the 18th century."

"Ohhh. They had it all wrong in the movie then. He was in Agrabah in the movie."

"Do you want me to continue or are you tired?" Daniel turned a page of the book.

"Not tired," Danny said quickly.

Daniel nodded. "I see. Okay... Meanwhile, Mustafa came to know how Aladdin found the magic lamp and became rich. He wanted to take the lamp back. So, one day, when Aladdin was away, Mustafa came to the palace dressed as a trader. He cried out, "Get new lamps for old ones! New lamps for old!" Hearing this, the princess took out the magic lamp and gave it to him. She did not know that the old lamp was indeed magical. She bought a shiny new lamp instead. Mustafa gladly took the lamp and went away. He then commanded the genie, "Send Aladdin's entire palace into the deserts in Africa!"

"Meany," Danny mumbled.

Jack crossed the room and slipped into the empty space on the couch beside them. Danny gave him a dozy smile and a wave. Daniel grinned, but continued on, "And saying this, Mustafa, along with the princess in the palace, were sent to Africa. Aladdin, on coming back, found his wife and house missing. He searched for the palace for three long days. Finally, he rubbed his magic ring and asked the genie, "Please take me to my princess!" The genie agreed."

Danny's head lolled back and his eyes closed. Daniel's voice dropped a notch and then faded into a whisper, "When he met his wife, Aladdin and the princess decided to trick Mustafa."

"Mustafa is holding the princess hostage and he just goes to asleep," Jack chuckled.

"We were at the gym earlier. He climbed the wall bars and we practiced 'fighting techniques' on the mat. Meaning I did a lot of roll overs and falls and he climbed on top of me and yelled victory," Daniel said, then frowned. "I took him to shower with me after. Is it true you never made him wash his hair on Ba'th? He flatly refused to let me anywhere near his head with the shampoo."

Jack snorted. "The little bugger just hates getting his head soapy."

"We should get no-tears shampoo. The regular stuff probably makes his eyes itch," Daniel suggested, brushing a gentle hand over the short blond hair.

Jack stared at him – at them – and was touched by how naturally Daniel had taken to accepting Danny in his life. Their lives. Jack felt a little overwhelmed by the deep peace that settled over him whenever he saw them together. He opened his mouth, not sure what he was going to say, and what finally came out of it was, "Thank you."

Daniel arched his eyebrows questioningly. "For what?"

"For being so great with him. For..." He restrained himself enough to not glance at the security camera. No audio. Still he didn't dare to say what he wanted to say. Not here. So he finished with, "for being here." He gazed at Daniel, hoping his eyes could convey the message. _With me._

"It feels good to be here." The corner of Daniel's mouth twitched upwards. _With you._

"Yeah."

After a moment of companionable silence Daniel suddenly blinked as if he just remembered what everyone else had been doing this morning. "How did it go? Did they...?"

"Thought you'd never ask," Jack joked.

"Very funny, har har. So?"

"They scanned our scrambled brains, spotted the nanites and..." Jack waggled his fingers, "zapped them away."

Daniel stared. "They... took them out? You're... you're nanite-free? All of you?"

"Yep. Worked like a charm. Everyone's happy and celebrating."

Fact was that neither of them had felt like celebrating. Teal'c was more interested in the symbiote replacement drug. Getting rid of the nanite was pretty low on his list of priorities and Jack couldn't blame him. He was already back in Fraiser's gentle care and being tortured some more by the Tok'ra.

Carter had been kind of absent-minded through the whole process. Jack had considered to reprimanding her for not getting enough sleep and working herself into exhaustion, but there was something else going on here that didn't meet the eye. He had an inkling it had something to do with him wanting custody of Danny and having no qualms about resigning if he had to.

Except that wasn't all the way true.

Somewhere over the last couple of weeks his priorities had shifted and there was no turning back from that. But now that he was in full possession of his memories and on Earth, he couldn't completely shrug off the sense of duty that had been drilled into him for all of his adult life.

As the leader of SG-1 his responsibility didn't end with being commander of his team. They all had contributed to saving the world several times over. Their country, hell, their planet, owed them, sure. But the war wasn't over and as long as the Goa'uld were out there SG-1 had to continue the fight.

The big question was – was he really one hundred percent ready to let them continue without him.

He had been a father and a soldier once. It had worked because Sara had carried the vast load of raising Charlie on her shoulders when Jack had been away. With both him and Daniel out there to continue their work Danny could end up being an orphan again some day.

"Jack?" Daniel's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "Did you hand in your resignation yet?"

He stretched his legs and leaned back on the couch, clasping his hands behind his head. "Working on it."

"Are you going to let them know you'll reconsider if they give you Danny?"

Jack looked down at the sleeping boy in Daniel's arms. His brow was slightly furrowed as if he was thinking hard about something in his dreams. One of his hands had latched onto Daniel's green BDU shirt, the other one rested on Daniel's leg.

"Carter is right, you know," he said finally. "I need to go out there and – to use Teal'c's words – kill false gods. But I can't. Not when he needs me here."

"So you're actually going to resign for real." There was no accusation in those words.

"Danny kept telling me the reason he fell from the sky was to get the team back together. So that we can be SG-1 again and kick Goa'uld ass."

"I know. But the original plan was for Danny to get you all home and then rejoin me on the higher plane. Things have changed, so the plan needs adjusting."

"Plan B?"

"He's here now. And we're not going to give him away."

"Nope."

"That leaves us with two options. We take the risk of dying out there and leaving Danny behind one day. Or one of us resigns and takes a desk job."

"SG-1 needs you out there." Daniel and Carter were the SGC's most valuable assets. The rocket scientist who could work miracles and the expert on all things linguistic and Goa'uld.

"SG-1 won't be the same if either one of you leaves." Carter entered the room, a determined look on her face. "Each of us contributes something special to the whole. We did great with Jonas and he really earned his place on the team. There's no doubt about that. But... but it wasn't the same. And not just because Daniel was gone. In a way you were gone too, sir. I believe SG-1 works best when we're all together." She walked around Daniel-Jonas' desk and leaned against it. Her tone softened when she gazed at Danny. "But you were right, too, Daniel. Danny belongs to us. He's part of the team just like you are."

Jack waited for her to continue, sure there was a plan or an idea somewhere in there, but she bit her lip and crossed her arms.

"Sam?" Daniel prompted gently.

She exhaled a deep breath and said, "I'm... I'm aware I can't make this decision for either of you and I know I kind of said the opposite earlier today, but... if you want my vote I'd say; take the risk. Make it work somehow."

"What changed your mind?" Jack asked, curious. He wasn't as good at people-reading as Daniel, but he knew his kids well enough to get that she'd been mulling something over for the better part of the day. Apparently she'd come to a conclusion.

"It's complicated."

Daniel shifted Danny's weight in his arms. "Coffee? There's a fresh pot."

She grinned. "Sure. I'll get it."

While she was occupied with filling three mugs Jack unfolded from the couch. "You got cookies?"

"I think Jonas has a stash of oatmeal cookies in the desk. He won't mind," Daniel offered.

Minutes later they were back on the couch and Carter had settled in Daniel's desk chair. They passed the cookies around and sipped their coffee. Finally she said, "I never shared this with you. I know I did the right thing and I prefer to leave it at that. But I wasn't always sure about it. For a long time, back then, I kept wondering if I should have made the effort and tried..."

Jack had a sudden 'hit by the clue bus' moment. "Cassie?"

A look of surprise crossed her face, but Jack didn't really need psychology 1.01 to figure out what she was talking about.

She took a sip of her coffee, holding the mug in both hands as if she needed the warmth. "I considered adopting her. I even thought about resigning. In the end it worked out well enough for all of us. I get to see her regularly and Cassie is happy. She and Janet are a lot alike and hit it off great. But..."

"You felt she belonged to you," Daniel said.

"I never contemplated having kids before. It just never crossed my mind and in my line of work it really wasn't an option for me. But Cassie... she triggered a part in me I didn't even know existed before. I love her and while I'm happy – today – to be her aunt, there was a time when I kept second guessing myself. When I wasn't sure I chose right."

"You never said anything," Daniel said, sounding stunned. "Why didn't you... I don't know... we could have helped you through that."

"At least we would have tried," Jack added quietly.

Sam smiled and shook her head. "There was nothing you could have done. Janet and I talked about it a lot, though. You know I spent a lot of time with them to help Cassie adjust in the first year. That kind of took the sting away."

Jack remembered that. They all had done their share of easing Cass into life on Earth. It had been fun to show her stuff and see her soak it up and sometimes it had been hard because the girl had not just come from another planet, she had lost everything and everyone she knew and loved.

They had helped, sure, but Carter and the Doc had done everything in their power to get the kid through all the rough patches. And Carter had been upbeat and optimistic, not letting on how torn she'd been.

"When it comes down to it I know I did the only thing I could do," Carter repeated her earlier statement. "Staying on the team and being able to focus on my work a hundred percent. Janet was perfect to take care of Cassie. I know that on a rational level and most of the time it's all good."

"But sometimes you wonder if you could have pulled it off. Staying on SG-1 and being a mom," Daniel concluded.

She nodded, then shrugged. "It's water under the bridge. I just want to make clear that I know where you are coming from. And, Colonel, I saw how you were with Danny on Ba'th. I knew you wouldn't let him go. He belongs to all of us, but he's your kid through and through."

"You were right about the risks, though," Jack said. "Which is why I probably should resign for real and not do it to pressure them into giving me the kid and letting me stay. It's a tough decision and I'm not gonna make it lightly."

"I know. And yet... after we talked about it yesterday I realized that there's no way of really calculating the risks. When Mark and I were kids our dad used to be on assignments, putting out fires all over the world. Of course going off world revs it up a notch, but he put himself into danger, too, time and again."

"But it wasn't your dad who died," Daniel said slowly.

"My mom was killed in a car accident when I was thirteen." She let out a little humorless snort. "We were always afraid that, some day, dad wasn't coming back. No one expected mom to die in a cab on her way home. What I'm trying to say is; there's always a potential risk. You could resign and get mowed over by a truck or hit by a lightning bolt for all we know."

"Yet, the chances of being killed by some wacko Goa'uld or Jaffa out there are slightly higher," Jack muttered.

Carter nodded. "Of course, sir. I guess it's a rock and hard place situation. Whatever your decision will be, we are going to support it."

"Thank you, Carter. I appreciate that." And he did. It was good to know they had his six.

"Look. If Jonas is willing to stay on the team there's no reason why I shouldn't stay on base. That way one of us is always here for the kid. I'm sure they are going to make me head of the archeological department and linguistics again. That work load is enough to keep me occupied and I could bring Danny to work with me until he needs to attend school," Daniel said.

"You could try to get shared custody," Sam said thoughtfully. "Or one of you can be his next of kin or his godfather."

"Or we could try and find a geek-friendly, open-minded, intelligent new leader for SG-1. Someone who's just as patient and nice as me," Jack pointed out.

"Patient," Carter echoed.

"Geek-friendly and nice?" Daniel snorted.

"Hey! I'm all of those things," Jack insisted.

"Well, I have to admit that we trained you well," Daniel agreed. "But there's a lot of room for improvement."

"That's it. I'll resign and you guys can find out who else is gonna let you get away with all the crap you keep putting me through on a daily basis," Jack growled.

Carter chuckled into her coffee and Daniel grinned.

"I'm going to make sure you get the most unforgiving, go-by-the-book, anal guy I can find," Jack threatened and pitched a cookie crumb at Daniel who smirked and shifted the boy in his arms.

"With any luck no one needs to resign and I won't have to worry about SG-1 having to 'break in' a new leader," Hammond's voice came from the doorway. He strode across the room and stopped by Carter's side. As opposed to yesterday's grim demeanor the general appeared to be much more relaxed.

Before Carter and Jack could get up and make an attempt to stand at attention Hammond waved at them to stay seated. "I've been talking to the Joint Chiefs and the President for the better part of an hour. Let me first tell you that you're cleared for active duty and all your restrictions have been lifted."

"That was fast," Jack remarked.

Hammond nodded. "Personally I think the Joint Chiefs have weighed all the pros and cons and decided Ba'th is too valuable as an ally to put a wrench into negotiations by accusing anyone here or there of being spies. Especially now that the nanites are gone and we are getting somewhere with that drug."

"What about my magical powers?" Daniel asked.

"Apparently the NID could not find sufficient evidence of any lingering alien powers in either your medical files nor their recordings of your questioning."

"Go me," Daniel said dryly.

"I want you to join the research team on the Ba'th moon as soon as you can be ready, Major. Ba'th authorities would also like to meet you and discuss how you deactivated the stamping device. Doctor Finnigan says they are very impressed with your work despite the fact that you are a woman."

"That's... nice, sir."

"In other news, negotiation with Ba'th authorities are in full flow and Doctor Finnigan tells me they have agreed to let us set up a base there and a bio lab. They are going to give us land to grow plants. Their only condition is that they want some of their own scientists to work with us." Hammond's smile widened a fraction. "Among others they will send a highly respected healer and herb woman. You might know her, Major."

"Jadah," Carter's eyes lit up.

"The very same. She had fallen into disgrace because she helped you regain your memories, but now that everything changed they decided she might be of help to grow crops for the SRD. I take it, from your report, that the original formula for the drug had been created by one of her ancestors."

"Yes, sir."

"SRD?" Jack asked.

"Symbiote Replacement Drug," Carter explained quickly, then addressed Hammond, "Sir, we are still working on the refining. The Tok'ra are optimistic, but..."

"Dolmakor has assured me it is only a matter of time and that there has been a significant breakthrough today while Sina dealt with your implants. He and Doctor Fraiser will brief you about it."

"I'm on my way, sir." Carter quickly put her mug on the desk. Jack could tell she was busting with excitement and eager to leave, but Hammond held up a hand. "Not so fast, Major. There is more."

Jack winced. "Don't get me wrong, sir, but the last time you said that, it was rather... bad news."

The general chuckled and shook his head. "Not this time, Jack. At least I don't consider it bad news." He paused and frowned. "Not for you anyway."

"Well, then, by all means... give us the good news."

"The base we are going to build on Ba'th will be partly for scientific and medical research. Its other purpose is to oversee the mining activities and to keep an open dialogue between our facility and the Ba'th people who will work hand in hand with our people on the mines and at the laboratories. It will also serve as a liaison between Earth and Bath, a joint effort to establish relatoins and become true allies."

"Like an embassy," Daniel said.

Danny started to stir and twist. Jack took over and after smacking his lips and mumbling something in his sleep the boy quieted down again.

"Something like that. After seeing the reports of how highly the Naquadah concentration really is and now that the SRD is a definite go, the government is very determined to make this a long term alliance. So they want us to branch out there." Hammond's eyes narrowed a bit and the smile died on his face. "And that's where you come in. They have left it to me to put a team together that will be assigned to Ba'th. I am well aware that SG-1 is a frontline team, a first contact unit. But no one on this base knows that planet better than you do and while Commander Ihmahli and you had a rocky start, I'm sure you will be able to put aside your differences if needed."

Jack exchanged a look with Daniel and Carter. "What exactly are you saying, sir?"

"I want you to take command of that base, Colonel. I need someone there who can hold the balance of keeping Earth's interests in mind and not exploit the people of Ba'th in the name of profit and power. Someone who has a clear view on both sides of this deal. "

"By that you mean someone who isn't intimidated by threats nor prone to bribery from certain levels of... bureaucracy," Jack said slowly.

"Exactly. Someone who knows where his priorities lie," Hammond agreed.

"What about Danny?" Jack asked.

"No decision has been made in that matter, but I'll strongly suggest they let you take him. Ba'th was his home and if he goes back with you they have one less issue to deal with. Of course I will see to it that we legalize the adoption first."

"Are we all going?" Carter wanted to know.

"I want to assign you part time, Major. Doctor Fraiser has expressed her wish to go as well. As for Doctor Jackson..."

"I'll go," Daniel said quickly. "There's a lot to discover in those old ruins Jack lived in. And a huge library at Madinah City I'm interested in as well."

Hammond sighed. "Somehow I knew you'd say that. I can offer you the same part time assignment I will give Major Carter and Doctor Fraiser. Meaning you'll have to keep yourself available to return to the SGC and for whenever we need your expertise on something."

"What about Teal'c?" Jack asked.

"It will be his choice. Someone has to introduce the SRD to the jaffa and find volunteers to try it. He could take some time off and re-join Bra'tac in the battle for the Jaffa or he could stay and join another team. He could accompany you, but I am not sure that is what he wants long term," Hammond said thoughtfully.

Jack looked at two thirds of his team and saw the approval in their eyes. "We'll have to run this by T," he said after a pause. "But I guess Jonas can keep the house, sir."

**Epilogue**

**Celebrating Life **

_**With**__** this I'll be yours, our souls will be bonded forever and our hearts will be one.**_

"Are we there yet? Are we? Jack? When are we gonna be there?" A small hand patted the top of Jack's head, then gently tousled the gray strands of his hair. "Jack?"

"Patience, buddy, patience," Jack sing-songed, putting a bounce into his step to make Danny bop up and down a little on his shoulders.

"It takes for-ev-ah," Danny complained, but giggled nevertheless. Jack felt him shift up there and Carter who was on Jack's left nudged him and mouthed, "Code red."

"Ah! No peeking," Jack growled at the birthday boy.

"I wasn't!"

"Were."

"Wasn't!"

"Oh, you sooo were. I have eyes in the back of my head. I see it all," Jack insisted. He exchanged a grin with Carter, who stifled a chuckle.

"Sam told you," Danny muttered. "Or Daniel. Or Teal'c. That's cheating."

"We're almost there," Carter said.

The sun had just begun painting the sky and the ocean in flaming red, brilliant purple and soft orange. Far away at the horizon was a silver lining, but above their heads it was all warm colors and patches of dark blue. Here and there Jack saw the twinkle of distant stars. He kind of regretted they had covered the kid's eyes. It was such a perfect morning. But Danny could see the sun rise and set every other day so it was probably okay that he missed part of this one.

"You comfy up there?" he asked, squeezing a bare leg. They had asked Danny if he was okay with the bandana – to crank up the surprise factor – but if he had serious issues with being 'in the dark' for so long they'd take it off.

"I can hear the ocean. And I smell it, too," Danny informed him instead of an answer. Jack heard him sucking in a deep breath through his nose. "We are going to the beach!"

"Maybe," Daniel said mysteriously. "Maybe not."

The little procession trudged down the promenade. The hotels and their occupants were still asleep. Not even the merchants had arrived yet. In an hour from now the promenade, driveways and gardens would be brimming with the hectic morning activities of gardeners, pool boys and food deliveries. Three or four hours from now the tourists would pour out onto the beach like a plague of locusts.

But until then it was theirs.

Teal'c who had taken point carried a huge white box like a trophy. Jack wondered if he was plotting how to get the biggest slice of cake. He'd better keep a close eye on the big guy. It was great to have him join them today. Between handing SRD out to his fellow Jaffa all over the galaxy and battling the Goa'uld on all fronts Teal'c's schedule was pretty tight.

Like Jack and Daniel were representing the liaison between Earth and Ba'th, Teal'c was the link between the Jaffa rebellion and the Tau'ri. But undomesticated equines could not have kept him away from the Daniels' birthday.

"Oh, look at this sunrise! It's so beautiful! I can't believe I never paid attention to it before," Fraiser said in awe. She and Cassie had returned to Earth last winter once the bio lab had been up and running. They had come back to spend part of the summer with them.

"Well, the sun comes up pretty early here and for some reason the sunset isn't quite as spectacular," Sam said.

"I told you so, mom. You should take early morning runs with me and Sam. It's good for you and you'll get to see the sunrise. It's just as stunning at the bluff by the base," Cassie said with the mild reprimand of a seventeen year old who, of course, knew it all and was wise beyond her years.

"Yes, ma'am," Fraiser replied dryly. "If I had the luxury of crawling back into bed for another two hours after the run, I'd do it every morning in a heartbeat."

"I don't crawl back into bed," Cassie said with a scowl.

"No, but you'd want to if you were my age," her mom said with a sigh, then grinned. "But you will get there some day, honey."

Cassie would start her last year of High School this fall and then wander off to college. Jack couldn't believe how fast she had grown up and – occasional attacks of hormonal giddiness and puberty induced crankiness aside – turned into this smart and independent young woman.

"Are we there yet?" Danny piped up.

"Almost," Jack said. "You hear the gulls?"

"Yes!"

"Where do you think we are now?"

The gulls' high-pitched cawww-cawww was coming from the tip of the Lance where the garbage was burned.

Danny thought about it for a moment. "The Lance is behind us. The gulls are not so loud anymore."

"Indeed," Teal'c confirmed. "It is not far now, DannyJackson."

To their right, embedded in the row of dunes that parted the promenade from the actual beach, Viktor's ice cream booth came into view. It wasn't as small as it used to be. In an added compartment a shiny new generator provided the booth with electricity for an equally new fridge. No more hauling ice blocks from the hotels.

Ba'th was discovering some of the technologies its Tau'ri ally offered and for the most part the good outweighed the not-so-good. Economy was flourishing and slowly but surely there were signs of changes in the heads of the people, too.

Once they had reached it they took a sharp right turn, left the paved promenade and walked down the wooden planks to the beach. The ocean was rolling in lazily this morning, as if it had just woken up as well.

"They're here, they're here!" someone squealed and when Jack looked around he spotted a small figure on top of a dune, waving both arms. He waved back and Danny started wriggling.

"Ja-ack! I want down! I want to take this off now!"

"Just one more minute," Carter coaxed.

Jack had to grin. It was almost torture to keep the star child blindfolded this long.

"Why is Daniel allowed to look?" Danny asked and Jack could actually hear the pout. "It's his birthday, too."

"I had to walk here on my own," Daniel said quickly, "I had to actually see where I'm going."

"But now you can close your eyes," Danny insisted.

"He has a point, you know," Jack said with a smirk. "What's good for the goose..."

Daniel opened his mouth, closed it, shook his head and finally gave in. "Okay. I guess I can do that. Someone has to lead me the rest of the way, though."

Cassie quickly took his arm. "Don't peek," she ordered.

"Yeah, let's just get it over with," Daniel muttered under his breath.

They hadn't told him what the surprise was because, as Danny had just pointed out, this was Daniel's birthday, too.

Of course Daniel had pretended not to care, and up to a point he probably didn't. He'd never been big on celebrating the anniversary of his arrival into this world. Probably because so many of his birthdays had been ignored by foster parents or spent at an orphanage or whatever. Jack didn't know the details, but he knew his Daniel well enough to get that birthday parties weren't high on his agenda.

The kid, however... he had embraced the idea of a party with the same enthusiasm and joy he showed for almost everything new and exciting.

Jack wondered if Daniel used to be like that before his life had been tainted by death and tragedy and he had to grow up too early too fast. Yet, there were echos of the star child in Daniel. In the way he cherished his work, in the passion he showed for others, in his fighting spirit.

In the way he loved.

There, Jack had found a happy, relaxed and sometimes playful Daniel only he got to see. They were each other's happy place and to this day Jack sometimes wanted to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't caught in some hallucination that might burst like a bubble at anytime.

Mania came running towards them, her red mane flying after her like a fire tail. "Come, come, it'th all weady!" She stopped short, took a deep breath and corrected herself, "Rrready." Beaming at them she spun around again and took off at light speed.

"She's making good progress," Fraiser observed.

"She's practicing allll the time," Danny shared. "Doing lots and lots of rrrrroaarrrring and stuff."

"Someone just had to show her what to do with her tongue when she's talking," Daniel said with a shrug. As usual he was selling himself short. They all knew he had spent hours and hours patiently teaching Mania how to pronounce 'R' and 'L'. She was doing great with the 'L' already. The 'R' still gave her trouble, but, Jack was sure of it, not for much longer.

They rounded the last dune and stepped out onto the beach and there it was.

The kids must have worked on this all evening yesterday once most people had left for dinner and the hotels. Jack assumed they had slept out here to protect it from vandalism and to make sure none of it broke off or crumbled away.

He was stunned.

He had asked for a sand castle and a bit of shell decoration.

What these kids had conjured out of whatever you could find on a beach was magical.

"Wow," Carter said.

"That's... stunning," Fraiser called out, grabbing Carter's hand and squeezing.

"Indeed."

Jack reached up and swung Danny down from where he'd been enthroned. "Ready?"

"YES!"

"Okay! Drummrollll..." With a flourish he pulled the bandana away from Danny's blond head.

"Open your eyes!" Cassie cheered at Daniel.

Danny took a step forward and raised both hands to his mouth. "Ohhhhhh!"

Daniel came to stand beside him. He didn't say a word, but reached down and hugged the star child to his side. Danny immediately wrapped one arm around Daniel's leg and like that they gazed at the marvel of architecture.

From the sands of Ba'th a castle had risen. Its many towers and bridges were adorned with blue and white sea shells, black stones and the blossoms of purple beach flowers... Carter probably knew what they were called. A knee high wall enclosed the castle and on it, made from green shimmering snail shells, the words "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANNY AND DANIEL" were displayed.

The sunrise colors started to fade a little. The silver lining at the horizon became brighter and widened significantly and the patches of dark blue among the red and orange became lighter. The sand appeared to be rich gold and pastel pink. Soon the surreal dawn twilight would be gone, but in this moment of time they were all enchanted by it.

Each of the artistically sculptured towers had a large window and in every window a candle burned, flames gently flickering in the soft sea breeze.

An out of tune but loud and hearty chorus of "Happy birthday!" broke the spell.

Mikele, Paolo, Ranja and Mania jumped, rolled and ran out of the dunes, followed by four or five other kids from the ball game teams. The always grim looking – even now that he was grinning from ear to ear there was something glum about him - Jorge and three of his guys traipsed after them.

Masala and Pietro, her husband, followed at a more leisurely pace. Pietro carried a basket filled with party decorations contributed by Hadis. Masala hugged everyone and finally swooped Danny up and kissed his cheeks, making him squirm and squeak. "Happy happy birthday, my darling Danny!"

Danny rubbed at his cheeks, but giggled. "Thank you. Did you tell your baby that it's mine and Daniel's birthday today?"

Masala put him down and laughed. "Yes, I did. The baby is all excited about it. It keeps doing somersaults. Here..." She took Danny's hand and placed it on her swollen belly.

Danny's eyes grew big and he stood motionless, his head tilted, lips pursed, as if he was listening to something beautiful. "It's dancing," he whispered and spun around. "Jack! Daniel! The baby is dancing!"

"Happy baby there," Jack grinned.

Then Mania pulled Danny away from Masala and, hugging the stuffing out of him, started to sing. "It's your biwww...rrrrthday todaaay, it's your birrrrrthday todaaay, be a haaappyyy boyyyy, be a haaapppyyy boyyyy..." She stopped and whispered something into his ear. Danny chortled and giggled as he took her hands and together they began spinning on the sand, faster and faster, singing at the top of their lungs, "It's a paarrrteeee daaay, it's a paaarteee daaaay!"

Apparently birthday songs were birthday songs on every planet.

Once they were both dizzy from all the spinning they let go of each other, staggered backwards and fell on the sand, laughing hysterically.

Daniel pulled a camera from of his pants pocket and started snapping pictures of the castle and the children. Teal'c, Carter and Fraiser took off their backpacks and started unpacking blankets, plates, flatware and food.

Jack and the teens went to prepare a couple of games for later. They had brought the ball with them and a couple of other things one needed for a beach party.

Cassie and Jorge blew up balloons and hung them in the small scrubs and crippled trees at the line of dunes. They kept glancing at each other and exchanging covert smiles. Jack made a mental note to keep an eye on those two in the future, but he couldn't help grinning at how Cassie made the hard nosed hooligan blush whenever she looked in his direction or asked him something as they talked about how the kids had built the sandcastle.

Jorge had taken a liking to the girl from day one back in the fall and was unusually well mannered around her.

The morning was spent eating all kinds of finger food and fruit salad, laughing, chatting and blowing out the candles in the sandcastle. Viktor joined them for a while before he had to get his booth ready for opening. He brought a bag of trinkets from Jack's former beach sale stock and every kid got to choose between an orange cap or a silver Ba'th Town necklace.

Mania found a bunch of yellow plastic bracelets in the bag and chose one as Danny's birthday gift and put it around his wrist.

Finally Daniel cut the enormous chocolate cake Cassie and Fraiser had made yesterday.

By the time the sun had crept a bit higher into the sky and twilight had fully turned into daylight they were all stuffed and sitting on the blankets, watching the ocean or cheering on the playing kids.

Danny was in the middle of the action, kicking the ball or racing around, playing catch with the twins. At one point all the little people stripped down to their underwear and ran into the water. Teal'c went with them to play the monster from the black lagoon. Someone had made Danny a crown from braided beach flowers which was now sitting askew on his head even as he splashed and swam or rode on Teal'c's strong back.

Jack secured another piece of cake for himself and settled down on one of the blankets beside Daniel.

"Hey."

Daniel was holding his own birthday crown in both hands – a similar braided wreath of purple flowers. He gently brushed over the petals. When he looked up a smile crossed his face. "Hey."

"You should wear it," Jack grinned.

Daniel smirked and held it up. "Mania did these. She's working at the harbor market this summer, for a florist who is braiding flower chains for tourists."

"I know. And she even gets paid okay."

Daniel placed the crown on his head and Jack reached out to adjust it a little. "Nice," he commented. "It's about time you get to wear the flowers for a change."

Daniel grinned. "You looked kind of elvish wearing those flower chains on weed planet. At least you didn't have to scrub blue paint off your body for hours in the shower when we got home."

"I don't remember a thing," Jack said, trying to keep a straight face.

"Of course you don't. Neither do I."

Jack drew a squiggle into the sand with his toe. The symbol for love as Daniel had taught him on that mission that had changed everything.

"Björk asked if he can stay on base for a couple of days when he's in the neighborhood next month," Daniel said out of the blue.

"What's he doing in the neighborhood?" Jack eyed his partner warily. He wasn't sure if he wanted Björk on base. It was awkward. Besides, Mohawk and Daniel spent way too much time sticking their heads together over all those maps and scrolls at Madinah's library for his liking. But that's what you got when two history buffs worked together on what Mohawk called the 'Ba'th Chronicles'.

For Daniel it was a mix of work and hobby. Mohawk was going to get a doctorate for it.

"Remember those ruins we discovered in spring?"

"Ohhh, the ones that looked so promising that you had to haul in a whole team of geekologists?"

"Those are the ones. We're done excavating artifacts in two sections and he wants to come out and draw floor plans and the likes."

The base they had built here was located a couple of miles outside of Ba'th Town, out of sight from the tourist attractions – the theater and baths – in a valley surrounded by a small forest and the fields of plants needed for the SRD. The two naquadah mines were closer to the woods and the monastery. Not far from where Jelica used to live. Jack and the commander of the mining operations, who was also his 2IC, met twice a week either at the mining facilities or the home base.

The one cool upside to this was the motorcycles, a couple of shiny new BMW_ R1200GS the SGC had provided as transportation. Carter hadn't stop drooling over hers either, yet. The motorcycles had been her idea when they had discussed the building of roads in order to make traveling between the mines, the base, and to Madinah City easier. Roads were in the works, but it would take a while. Until then the bikes served them well. _

Those new ruins Daniel and Mohawk were so hyped about had been discovered during the uprooting for another sage field. After a bit of wrangling with the SGC and Ba'th authorities Daniel had gotten his way and started excavating.

"Ahhh," Jack said noncommittally.

"Jack."

"I heard you."

"And?"

"How long is a couple of days and why can't he bring a tent?"

"I'm wondering if you're just embarrassed about him getting into your pants..."

"Almost," Jack corrected sharply.

"...or if you're actually jealous because he's a nice guy and we get along so well?" Daniel teased mildly.

"You shouldn't hook up with people you work with," Jack grumbled and Daniel's eyes twinkled with laughter. Jack shot him a dark look. "He makes one move on you and he's dead."

"I know the feeling. I was tempted to make lightning strike him when he went down on you that night," Daniel said sweetly.

Jack groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. "Which makes the fact that you're best buddies now even more awkward."

"He's a nice guy." Daniel shrugged. "Comfortable to work with."

"Fine. He can still bring a tent. Weather's all nice and warm this time of year."

"Jack... come on. It's the week when it's Ihmahli's turn to come down for the briefings."

"And? So? Therefore?"

Daniel's shoulder bumped into Jack's. "It would probably put your mind to rest if you let Björk stay on base so that he can finally make his move on Ihmahli. You wouldn't even break any rules since same gender relationships are not an issue in the Ba'th military."

Jack blinked. "You serious?"

"About Björk and Ihmahli? Oh, yes. Big, big crush."

"Ihmahli, too?" Jack had come to peace with the fact that Ihmahli had been made his 2IC, It had been done in the light of making the alliance an equal partnership. Ihmahli was a good man when it came down to it. He'd been more than a little bit annoyed when his authorities pulled him off the moon base and made him master of the mines and Jack's subordinate instead, but Jack had to give it to him; he'd never taken it out on his people or the Earth contingent. Jack suspected the authorities had put Ihmahli on this assignment for much the same reasons Hammond had given him command over the base.

"I guess that's what Björk wants to find out. It would be nice if the feeling was mutual because he keeps talking to me about Ihmahli all the damn time. He's really got it bad."

"Makes sense. He has a thing for older guys," Jack said with a sheepish little smile.

"I know. So what are you worrying about anyway?"

Jack nudged his knee against Daniel's. "Tell him he can stay in one of the guest quarters."

They looked over at the sandcastle and its sparkly seashell decoration.

"This is probably the nicest thing anyone has ever done for my birthday … after I turned eight," Daniel said quietly.

"Hey, we tried. You never wanted a party, you never wanted to go out for dinner, you refused to even accept gifts," Jack muttered, thinking back to the years when SG-1 had tried to celebrate the birthday of the man who didn't want to have his birthday celebrated.

Daniel shrugged. "I might have been a bit of a..."

"Pain in the ass."

"Grinch. Birthday Grinch."

"Still are. The only reason you came along was because it's Danny's birthday and apparently HE is allowed to enjoy it," Jack pointed out.

"I didn't _deny_ myself having a birthday party," Daniel corrected. "I just really never got all the fuss. I never felt like celebrating it. Danny is a kid. A happy kid. And he loved the idea of having a party so why shouldn't he enjoy it?"

Jack forked up a piece of cake and offered it to Daniel who actually opened his mouth and took the bite.

"It's good, eh?"

"Mmmmh, very." Daniel licked his lips.

"And you're having a good time."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Yes, Jack, I'm having a good time."

"So... you consider yourself a happy guy?"

Daniel leaned in and brushed his lips against Jack's, whispering, "You know I do."

Before he could pull back Jack made it a real kiss that tasted of chocolate and salty air. When they parted he said, "Then you have all the reasons in the world to celebrate your birthday, Daniel."

Daniel blinked. "Because I'm happy I need to have birthday parties?"

"Celebrating life," Jack said. "In whichever way you want. It's not about parties and cake and whatnot. It's about loving your life. And, I guess, it's a kind of nod to your mother, because she gave birth to you on this day. And with that," he stole another kiss, "she made me a very happy guy, too."

Daniel stared at him in stunned silence for a moment, then shook his head and laughed. "This has to be the most philosophical thing that has ever come out of your mouth."

"Don't tell anyone I said that. I will deny it to my last breath."

"Your secret is safe with me," Daniel snorted, then sobered. "I like that. A nod to my mom. That's nicely put, Jack. Thank you."

Jack gave him a blank look. "What?"

Daniel laughed and surged to his feet. Jack watched him pull off his shirt and khakis, enjoying the play of muscles under tanned skin. He had nicely settled back into that body, his Daniel. Was taking good care of it, too.

It occurred to him that the Daniels had twice as much reason to celebrate this birthday. After all they had been resurrected on this planet by Oma. Both of them. In a way Ba'th was their real home world now.

Daniel dropped his glasses on the pile of clothes. "You coming or what? This is my party and I think it's time to join the fun."

Before his train of thought turned him into a total sap Jack shucked his tee and shorts in no time.

"Race ya," he hollered and together they ran to the shoreline and dove into the tepid, silky water where a gaggle of kids and the monster from the black lagoon attacked them without mercy.

ooo

The new base was a nice spot to work in, but Daniel, Jack and Danny tended to spend their free weekends in a small cabin here in town, up the mountain road only a stone's throw away from Hadis' house.

Daniel loved this place. It was small – two bedrooms and a combination of kitchen and living room - but it was theirs. Their first real home together. It meant a lot. It meant everything.

Sometimes, at nights when it was very quiet, the wind carried the faint mumbling of the ocean up here and the morning sun always visited them on their porch when they had breakfast out there. They grew strawberries and raspberries in the garden and Jack was considering vegetables and potatoes for next year.

There was a pump for fresh water from an underground well, a large wooden bathtub and an out house. No electricity, but none of them missed anything. Probably because they had running water and central heating on base.

After the early birthday bash they had packed up and shared all the leftover food evenly between the Lance kids. Then they had taken Danny and the twins out to the clay pit where they had spent most of the day playing in the mud, getting dirtier than Daniel had ever seen them.

For reasons only five year olds could probably understand it had been Danny's special wish for today. The kids had pretended to be archeologists and every rock they dug up had been something precious. Then, of course, Jack had to get in there with them because he was basically the biggest kid of all, and they had started a mud fight.

The rest of them had cheered from the sidelines. Daniel had no problems getting dirty on digs, but he wasn't into taking mud baths just because.

Later they had trudged back down to the beach and washed it all off. When they had said good-bye to Teal'c, Sam, Janet and Cassie who returned to base since there wasn't enough space for all of them at the cabin, Danny claimed this had been the 'bestet of all birthdays ever'.

It hadn't been a problem to tuck the small birthday boy in this evening. He'd practically fallen asleep over his dinner.

Now, in the fading daylight Daniel watched Jack. Watched his hands, to be more precise. Watched as they formed a jug or a bowl. Jack's fingers, slick with wet clay, worked steadily.

"Didn't you get muddy enough in that clay pit?" Daniel asked.

The first thing Jack had built in the backyard was a small kiln. They had bought Hadis' old pottery wheel and paid him enough to get a better and bigger one. Of course Hadis had known they'd paid him way too much, but he hadn't batted an eyelid. The man knew to take his opportunities as they came.

"Hmmm?" Jack stayed focused on his pottery project.

"What are you doing? I thought we'd sit out here and you could be my birthday present... since the kid is zonked out enough to sleep like a rock tonight."

Jack smiled. "I wanna show you something. C'mere." He slowed the wheel to a halt. The cone he'd been working on fell into itself, nothing more than a heap of clay. Jack got up from his stool, holding up his hands to keep them from smearing clay everywhere. "Sit."

"You just ruined whatever you were doing," Daniel pointed out.

"That's okay. We'll get it back."

"Jack... as much as I like our wheel and the clay, I'd rather..."

"It won't take long, I promise. Humor me, okay?"

"Fine. Five minutes, then you'd better start playing with me instead," Daniel grumbled and sat down on the hard wooden stool.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely gonna play with you."

He heard a scraping sound and when he looked back over his shoulder he saw Jack pulling another stool over with his foot and placing it behind Daniel. A moment later a warm naked body pressed into him from behind. It was a hot summer night, they were both only in their shorts.

Daniel put his hands on the mass of clay. It was cool and wet. Jack's hands settled over his and Jack's mouth pressed a kiss to Daniel's ear. "Get it to spin, Doctor Jackson."

"If it makes you happy..." Daniel started to push the pedal with his foot and when the wheel began to work again, Jack guided his hands, moved them up and down what was soon a clay cone again.

"What's it gonna be when it's done?" Daniel asked, kind of distracted by Jack's front being plastered against his back.

"If only I knew," Jack chuckled. "Ever made a clay dildo?"

"Nooo, but I'd like to see you explaining its purpose to Danny."

"Okay. Bad idea. Very bad. Could be a lantern. Or a vase..." Jack trailed kisses up and down the side of Daniel's neck as their hands kept moving with the clay.

"We'll ruin it," Daniel murmured, moving his head to give Jack better access.

Jack nibbled at his earlobe. "Steady hands, Daniel, it's all a matter of coordination..."

"We're certainly doing better than they did in that movie."

Jack moved his hands in sync with Daniel's, barely touching. But when Jack let go to scoop up some more clay from a bucket on the ground, Daniel made a sudden movement and the cone collapsed.

"Again," Jack whispered and the wheel kept moving as they tried to re-shape their piece of art together. They were even getting somewhere when Jack suddenly started rubbing his clay covered hands up and down Daniel's bare arms, then entwined their fingers.

The cone slipped again.

Daniel turned his head and they kissed deeply while their hands kept playing with the clay.

"So much for not getting dirty on my birthday," Daniel moaned and stopped the wheel. "You do realize we have no shower here..."

He tried – not very hard – to bat Jack's hands away when they started to smear clay all over his chest and belly, then wiped over Daniel's hips, leaving mud on the waistband of his shorts, and up his back.

"We have a pump and a bucket," Jack said. "Hold still."

"What..." Then he stopped moving as he felt Jack's long fingers draw on his back.

The symbol for belonging.

The symbol for commitment

The symbol for love.

_With this I'll be yours, our souls will be bonded forever and our hearts will be one_

Daniel decided he agreed with Danny. This was the best birthday ever.

Fin


End file.
